Living the 
Creative Life 




Class JjJ 
Book__^l 
Copyright N?.. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



LIVING THE 
CREATIVE LIFE 



BY 

JOSEPH H. APPEL 

Author of "My Onvn Story" 




NEW YORK 

Robert M. McBride & Company 
1918 



Copyright 1918 
by 

ROBERT M. McBRIDE £f COMPANY 



-':> 

4 



■■■ ■:■■ 



Printed in the United States of America. 



I 



Published September. I9I8 



s«J2 



DEDICATED TO 
FATHER AND SON 
WHOSE CREATIVE LIVES 

HAVE BUILDED 

THE CREATIVE BUSINESS 

WHICH INSPIRES THIS BOOK 



M 



CONTENTS. 

FINDING 
THE CREATIVE POWER WITHIN 

Foreword xiii 

ANALYZING 
THE CREATIVE POWER WITHIN 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I First Steps Towards Efficiency i 

A Chart of Efficiency. 
The Way to Efficiency. 

II Failure of Efficiency . . 10 

III The Beginning of Creative Life 18 

IV The Creative Power in Man . 27 

V How the Creative Spirit Works 

in Man 32 

VI Replacing Efficiency With Cre- 

ativeness .... 43 

A Chart of Creative Living. 
The Way to Creative Living. 

[vii] 



CONTENTS 


QUALITIES OF CREATIVE LIVING 






Doing 




CHAPTER 




PAGE 


VII 


Health 


53 


VIII 


Some Rules of Health 


6o 


IX 


Energy 


68 


X 


Understanding , 


• » :« 


7i 


XI 


Action 


e • • 


8o 


XII 


Endurance 


1 • • 1 


84 


XIII 


Hospitality 


t • • ) 


, 86 


XIV 


Carefulness 


« » • < 


, 88 


XV 


Thoroughness 


> . • < 


■ 93 


XVI 


Concentration 


. • • 


. 9 6 




Knowing 




XVII 


Observation 


. ioo 


XVIII 


Reading and Study . 


. 103 


XIX 


Intuition . 


. 104 


XX 


Memory .... 


. 106 


XXI 


Imagination or Visualization 


. no 


XXII 


Application to Practise 


. 112 


XXIII 


Practise as a Habit . 


. 114 




[viii] 







CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 
XXIV 


Growing 

PAGE 

Ability . . . . 116 


XXV 


Dependability 








. 118 


XXVI 


Interest 








. 120 


XXVII 


Self-reliance 








. 123 


XXVIII 


Tenacity . 








. 124 


XXIX 


Conservation 








. 125 


XXX 


Vision 








. 127 


XXXI 


Ambition 








. I29 


XXXII 


Loyalty 








• 131 


XXXIII 


Faith 








. I36 


XXXIV 


Initiative . 








• 139 


XXXV 


Living and 1 
Good Thoughts . 


3eing 






■ 143 


XXXVI 


Good Habits 








■ 147 


XXXVII 


Self-Control 








. 149 


XXXVIII 


Good Friends 








151 


XXXIX 


Happiness . 








153 


XL 


Thrift 








155 


XLI 


Peace and Contentment 




164 


XLII 


A Sense of Humor 




166 




[IX] 











CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

XLIII 
XLIV 



Co-operation 
Reverence and Worship 



page 
168 

174 



REALIZING 
THE CREATIVE POWER IN LIVING IT 

XLV Creative Doing .... 

Analysing Our Work. 
Planning Our Work. 
Working Our Plan. 
Checking Up. 
Creative Knowing 

Ask Questions. 
Adapt Ourselves. 
Standardise. 
Use Common Sense., 
Creative Growing 

Set a Goal. 

Strive to Reach the Goal. 

Discipline Ourselves. 
Creative Living and Being 

Living in Mutuality. 

Living Our Faith. 

Living Our Work. 
Individual Liberty 
Living the Creative Life in Its 

Fullness .... 

Afterword 

Letter from Judge Troward 



XLVI 



XLVII 



XLVIII 



XLIX 
L 



180 



187 



194 



198 



207 

211 
220 
22y 



[x] 



FOREWORD 



HOW TO LIVE 

"How to live ? — that is the essential question for us* 
Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but 
in the widest sense. The general problem which com- 
prehends every special problem is — the right ruling of 
conduct in all directions under all circumstances. 

"In what way to treat the body, in what way to 
treat the mind ; in what way to manage ouraffairs ; in 
what way to bring up a family ; in what way to behave 
as a citizen ; in what way to utilize all those sources of 
happiness which nature supplies — how to use all our 
faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and 
others — how to live completely?" 

Herbert Spencer in "Education," Chapter 1, Page 12- 
D. Appleton & Co., Publishers. 



[xii] 



FOREWORD 

FINDING THE CREATIVE POWER WITHIN 



FOR nearly twenty years I have worked in the 
ranks of a retail business organization of twelve 
thousand men and women, boys and girls. We 
are a community of workers, happy in the public 
service that we give daily within an immediate shop- 
ping circle of nine millions of people. 

During these years I have been in close personal 
contact with the greatest merchant of the age, the 
Founder of the business, and at the age of 80 still 
its active director. 

I have studied this great man, to discover the source 
of his power. I have studied the institution he has 
built, literally out of nothing but an idea. I have 
worked under him and with him. I have lived with 
him. I have seen into his business soul, which in 
this man is identical with his personal soul. And 
out of this long practical experience in the active life 
of a store I have reached the conclusion: all creative 
power corners from within, from the all-originating 
force of Original Thought. 

Through thought, application and hard work, suc- 
cessful men build their efficient man-machine — health, 

[xiiij 



FORWARD 



understanding, technique. Then, keeping this machine 
in good running order, they give themselves up to the 
creative power that is within them, which runs the 
machine. They live the creative life and creative 
genius pours out of them. 

How I found within myself this Power is told in 
"My Own Story," a little book inspired by the business 
I have spoken of, and also by some of the books of 
Thomas Troward, the English Mental Scientist. 

I was only three years old when I first felt the 
Power. It was then without, not within me. My 
sister died. A higher power — far away — had taken 
her from me. 

I felt the "higher power" again when I was given 
my first whipping because I would not go to school. 
I literally felt the power. It was still "without," but 
alas, very close to me. 

When I told my first conscious lie the power began 
to manifest itself within me. I denied the lie, as most 
boys will. I sulked. I would not confess. I ran off 
by myself. Fought the battle alone with my own con- 
science. Found there the power within that would 
not be denied. 

Later in life as I went to college and tried to sneak 
my way through my studies and examinations, I 
learned, from more bitter experience, that the Power 
within disciplined me when I did wrong and aided 
me when I did right. 

[xiv] 



FOREWORD 



Still later, when entering business, I found that as 
I opened my heart and my mind to this Power I 
grew in ability, in character, in usefulness and in for- 
tune. I found also that there was a spirit in business, 
its life, and that as I entered into the spirit of business 
and of life, the spirit entered into me and I prospered. 

Through these embryo years I discovered for myself 
the Power Within, but I did not then realize that it is 
the All-Creative Power. 

Now, after larger business experience, and more 
study of Troward, I am attempting to analyze the 
Power in terms of practical life, in the hope that 
the analysis will help other workers to comprehend 
its source, its meaning, its all-creativeness. 

I believe that each individual must work out his 
own destiny through his daily activities, in association 
with his fellow men. 

I believe the individual must so live, that in the 
fullness of time, here or hereafter, he will perfect his 
individuality and become the image and likeness of 
God. 

I believe that man's destiny, so far as we can 
know it, is to become the manifestation of Spirit in 
individual form. 

I believe that Spirit is Thought — the divine origin 
of all that is or was or shall be. 

I believe that Thought creates all things through 
man. 

I believe that through Thought — Creative Spiritual 

[xv] 



FOREWORD 



Thought — man will reach the spiritual completion of 
himself, th efullness of life, the wohleness of his being, 
which is God's intention. 

I believe that we should begin to strive for this 
perfection on the physical and mental plane on which 
we live on earth. If perfection is the ultimate state 
of man, which each individual must reach here or 
hereafter, we will save time and suffering and gain 
early and lasting happiness by getting on the right 
road here and now. 

Man, as a race, is ever striving for perfection — 
for the perfection of man as a creation. From the 
viewpoint of SERVICE, man, as a race, is steadily 
progressing, physically, mentally, morally. In physi- 
cal achievements — in the world of mechanics; in 
mental achievements — in the world of science; and 
in moral achievements — in the world of uplift and 
education — man, as a race, is making gigantic strides. 

In spiritual understanding the way is now opening 
for even more gigantic advance. The suffering and 
self-sacrifice of the Great War are showing the indi- 
vidual more clearly than even religion has yet shown 
that the Way of the Spirit is the Creative Way of life. 

Man — the individual — is discovering that all men 
are one; that not only is man brother to man, but 
that man is son to God. 

Co-operation in business, in social organizations, in 
all activities of labor, is taking the place of competi- 
tion. Nationalism is giving way to universalism 

[xvi] 



FOREWORD 



Races and tongues are amalgamating. Hindrances of 
distance and separation in time are disappearing be- 
fore the fast steamer, the faster aeroplane, the wire- 
less, the cable, the telegraph, the telephone. Com- 
munity of interests is amalgamating peoples of the 
two hemispheres. 

And, through all this co-operation and brotherhood 
the individual is expressing himself more fully — be- 
cause he is knowing more of life and living more of 
the Creative Life. 

The individual is thinking more of other individuals 
because he meets more, sees more, knows more, and 
understands more of them. And in understanding 
more of others, man — the individual — gains a better 
understanding of himself, and thus a better under- 
standing of God. 

Man is discovering something of his true nature, 
something of his Spiritual origin, something of his 
creative powers — particularly the source of those 
powers. 

The world seems to be at the threshold of a Spiritual 
awakening. 

To give the experience of one individual — which 
must also be the experience of many — in approaching 
this Spiritual awakening is the purpose of this book. 

It is not a sermon. It is not a moral treatise. It 
is not a statement of philosophy. It is not a revelation 
of science. It is not a code of business practise. It 

fovii] 



FOREWORD 



is all of these. It is Life, itself. It is Creative Life 
in its Fullness, so far as one individual has lived it 
and is striving to live it. 



[xviii] 



ANALYZING THE CREATIVE POWER 
WITHIN 

CHAPTER I 

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS EFFICIENCY 



THE personal experiences which led to the 
writing of this present volume began about the 
time the Great War broke. I was, as usual, 
deeply immersed in business. Having discovered the 
Power Within I had great joy in living, in doing, in 
being. There were great things to be done. Business 
was growing. My duties were growing. My share 
in the store's work was expanding in even larger 
circles. We were planning in a big way for the 
future. I was taken more intimately into the inner 
circles of the organization. 

Because the people of our country were so im- 
mersed in their own affairs, the United States at first 
did not realize the war. We were not in it. We 
were separated by three thousand miles of water from 
the battleground. It wasn't our war. It was a war 

[i] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



to preserve the balance of power in Europe or the 
balance of trade. America must hold aloof. 

Then America's eyes were opened. America's con- 
science awoke. We discovered that the war was more 
than local, more than European. We began to realize 
that it was a world-war, because a universal principle 
was involved. 

Men were fighting on one side for Truth, for 
Right, for Love, for Honor. On the other side men 
were fighting also for what, in their inverted thought, 
they named the same principles, but which, in reality, 
are error and wrong, selfishness and dishonor, sin 
and death. 

The United States, with its intelligence, its freedom 
of thought, its tolerance, its broadmindedness, its big 
heart, its grasp of world movements, could not take 
any other side, once its people were awake, than the 
side of Good, the side of God. 

So, we entered the war. War became the business 
of the nation, although business of the people still 
went on. Workers were a little more nervous. Fear 
more and more entered their souls. The future was 
uncertain. Jealousies cropped out in the tense compe- 
tion. Suspicions were engendered. The loyalty of 
certain foreign born was questioned. The hyphen had 
to go. We were either Americans or we were not. We 
could not be half-and-half — German-American, French- 
American, or any thing-else-half -American. 

Soon the nation became consolidated. States forgot 



[21 



FIRST STEPS TOWARDS EFFICIENCY 



their state rights. The people became unified. 
Thought crystallized. And love and harmony grew 
out of hate and discord. The question of loyalty was 
settled without bloodshed. 

Along with the Great War came renewed attention 
to efficiency — German efficiency, about which we heard 
so much. Efficiency was preached and practised in 
the United States before the War, but Germany's 
efficiency in war intensified its study here. 

Government began to make itself more efficient. 
Factories and workshops became more efficient. 
Business became more efficient. Homes became more 
efficient. 

Work was ennobled. A million of our youth were 
called to war. Everybody — women and men — set at 
work to take their places in the economic life of the 
nation. The idler was outlawed. Even "society" 
knitted. 

Everybody was trying to help. Naturally, I felt 
the "call 2 ' but being much above fighting-age, my 
duty lay in the very work I was doing. 

I thought of the little book I had written to help 
my fellow-workers — "My Own Story." There must 
be another message. I will try to write it down. 

I read all the works on efficiency I could find. 
Efficiency was in the air. I read more of Troward. 

But the Spirit did not move me. I had not forgotten 
the Higher Power. But when I tried to apply it to 

[3] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



every day affairs it would not inspire. The reason 
was I was looking "away off somewhere" for inspira- 
tion. I had forgotten that the Power is Within. 

One day I read "Obvious Adams," the story of a 
man who always did the obvious thing — that's all, 
just the obvious thing, the thing under his nose — and 
was successful. "I have it," I cried, "I will 
write down the obvious qualities required in business 
and in life, I will analyze them, I will apply them, 
I shall have the secret of efficiency." 

I had found my inspiration close at hand. It 
came from within. It was the Power Within speak- 
ing. So, I sat down at my desk, and this is what 
I wrote. 

The first thing we do in life is DOING. We do 
before we know. We walk and we talk before we 
know that we walk or talk. Do you think the child 
knows that it is walking when it takes the first halting 
steps? It doesn't know anything about walking. Do 
you think the child knows it is talking when it lisps 
the first few words ? No, a child even learns language 
without knowing it — language which to an adult 
stranger is so difficult to learn. 

Doing is the first thing in life. KNOWING comes 
second. As we grow up we begin to ask questions. 
Our minds grow curious. Our parents encourage this 
curiosity. We are taught to read. We are given 
books. We go to school. Then we begin to KNOW. 

[4] 



FIRST STEPS TOWARDS EFFICIENCY 



Even in grown life we are plunged into business 
before we know things and told to do the things). 
Even then we have to do before we know. Knowing 
is the second stage of life. 

Then as we begin to know we begin to grow. 
GROWING is the third stage of life. 

But while we are doing and knowing and growing 
we are living. We live before we do, before we 
know, before we grow. But we live so much more 
fully after we do and know and grow that I put 
LIVING— LIVING-NESS, if you please, as the 
fourth stage of our unfoldment. 

The obvious thing, then, is to classify our existence 
into — 

1. DOING 

2. KNOWING 

3. GROWING 

4. LIVING or LIVINGNESS 

Opposite each classification I wrote, in order of 
priority, one by one, the qualities that I perceived 
to be useful in business. 

Under Doing I wrote first HEALTH. From this 
starting point, which was obvious, at least from a 
physical and mental viewpoint, evolved the following 
analytical chart and synopsis of what I called "A 
Chart of Efficiency' '—embracing the qualities which 
go to make up efficiency. 



[5] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



A CHART OF EFFICIENCY 





\ 1. 




2. 




3. 


D 


4. 





S. 


I - 


6. 


N 


7. 


G 





HEALTH 

—whole; normal; vigor; strength. 

ENERGY 
— force; activity; physical and mental power. 

UNDERSTANDING 

—wisdom; judgment; reason; logical knowing and 
thinking power; intellect; intelligence; perception 
and comprehension; skill; good sense. 

ACTION 

— the will in command; willingness to do; the hody 
and mind in action; active energy; industry; dili- 
gence. 

ENDURANCE 
— stamina; backbone; bearing with patience; unyield- 
ing; hold the fort; lasting quality. 

HOSPITALITY 
— politeness; courtesy; tact; graciousness; charm of 
manner. 

CAREFULNESS 
— with-care; serious attention of mind; mindful; 
heedful; exactness; accuracy; precision; according to 
rule; celerity; promptness; punctuality. 

THOROUGHNESS 

— going "through" to the end; finishing the job; 
carrying the message to Garcia; following up and 
checking up; planning and systematizing. 

CONCENTRATION 
— prolonged attention; focusing one's mind and effort 
on the thing to be done; "this one thing I do." 



K 






? 


N 






i 











w 


4. 


I 




N 


5. 


G 


6 



OBSERVATION 

— seeing; not merely looking. 
READING and STUDY 

— including the asking of questions in order to learn. 
MEMORY 

— intensified by interest and retained by association 

IMAGINATION or VISUALIZATION 

— constructive thinking; getting the customer's view- 
point; looking ahead; foresightedness. 

APPLICATION TO PRACTISE 
— practical use of knowledge. 

PRACTISE as a HABIT 
— practise makes perfect; experience. 



[6] 



FIRST STEPS TOWARDS EFFICIENCY 





R 


w 

I 

N 
G 



1. ABILITY 

—mental and physical equipment. 

2. DEPENDABILITY 

— character; integrity; reliability. 

3. INTEREST 



—enthusiasm in one's work; earnestness; zeal; eag- 
erness to do and to learn. 



SELF-RELIANCE- 

— assurance; self-confidence; positiveness; poise. 
TENACITY 

— grit; stick--to-it-iveness; energetic striving. 
CONSERVATION 

— of time; energy; money; opportunity. 
VISION 

— breadth of mind and view; open-mindedness. 

8. AMBITION 

— the desire to grow. 

9. LOYALTY 

—to the business; to others; to one's self. 

10. FAITH 

— in self, in others, in business, in one's own con- 
victions. 

11. INITIATIVE 

—doing the right thing without being told; devising 
ways and means; originality. 



L 
I 

V 

I 

N 

G 



7. 



GOOD HABITS 

purity; temperance; moderation in all thingr 
GOOD FRIENDS 

— mental and moral help. 
SELF-CONTROL 

— the real self in control; wise use of one's equipment. 
HAPPINESS 

—an asset in work; well-being; prosperity; comfort. 
CONTENTMENT and PEACE 

— equable state of mind conducive to good work; the 

feeling of one who does not needlessly pine after 

what is beyond his reach nor fret at the hardships 

of his condition, at the same time earnestly striving 

to improve himself and conditions. 
CO-OPERATION 

— working together in harmony and on signal; 

giving orders and taking orders; the composite; 

live and let live; give and take. 



After this analysis lay before me on paper I began 
to formulate, from my study and observation, a state- 
ment of efficiency. I wrote this — 

[71 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



EFFICIENCY 

Efficiency is doing the thing that is to 
be done in the best, shortest and quickest 
way, 

PERSONAL EFFICIENCY 

Personal efficiency is the wise use of 
time, capacity, money and opportunity in 
making the most of one's life. 

CO-OPERATIVE EFFICIENCY 

Co-operative efficiency is harmonious 
team work of efficient individuals, "giving 
and taking" and helping one another for 
the common good of the organization. 



Now I had before me the qualities and tests of 
efficiency and the definition of efficiency, itself, which 
showed the goal I was after. But how to develop 
these qualities, I pondered, how to reach the goal of 
efficiency ? 

After more study and contemplation, and using the 
same classifications of doing, knowing, growing and 

[8] 



FIRST STEPS TOWARDS EFFICIENCY 



living, I set down the following formula as "the Way 
to Efficiency." 

THE WAY TO EFFICIENCY 



1. ANALYZE f t 

— your work, yourself, your record—by the what, 
why and how system. 

2. PLAN YOUR WORK 

—schedule it; put it in definite shape on paper. 

3. WORK YOUR PLAN 

put it into practise; despatch it on schedule time, 

4. CHECK-UP 

—and follow up to see that the work is done. 



K 
N 

O 
W 
I 
N 
G 



1. ASK QUESTIONS 

take counsel and learn. 

2. ADAPT YOURSELF 

— adapt yourself to conditions or else change the con- 
ditions. 

3. STANDARIZE 

— yourself, your methods, your work, your play, your 
life. 

4. USE COMMON SENSE 

—reason, judgment, right feelings; true intuition. 



G 
R 


W 

I 
N 
G 



SET A GOAL 

— form ideals and desires; keep your standard high, 

raising it constantly. 
STRIVE TO REACH THE GOAL 

— and the reward. 
DISCIPLINE YOURSELF 

— to do 

—to restrain. 



r 1. CO-OPERATE 

— give and receive; live and let live; fair play to all 
for the good of all. 

2. HAVE FAITH 
— brook no discouragement, no matter how hard the 
road. 

3. MAKE YOUR WORK YOUR LIFE 

not a means to an end, but the end itself; not a 

necessary evil, but the supreme good; the complete 
development of self in a purely unselfish spirit. 

ALL LEADING TO FREEDOM 



[9] 



CHAPTER II 

FAILURE OF EFFICIENCY 



NOW, I thought, I have the plan — the book will 
write itself. 
But the book refused to write itself I tried 
to write. Stopped. Began again. Stopped again. 
Failure. 

Something was wrong. To my intellect the plan 
seemed right. I reasoned the analysis out from begin- 
ning to end. It proved. It was reasonable. It was 
common sense. But my heart refused to warm up 
to the subject. Inspiration would not come. 

Something was lacking. The material was there. 
The mental was there. The will was there. But the 
Spirit was not there. 

Now, after long waiting and suffering, I realize 
why the Spirit was not there. The Spirit was absent 
because the Creative Spirit, the all-originating Spirit, 
was absent in my thoughts. 

I had forgotten to put the Higher Power in my 
plan. 

I was yet to learn that matter without Spirit is 
nothing ; that Spirit alone creates. 



Ho] 



FAILURE OF EFFICIENCY 



I was yet to learn the meaning and the purpose of 
Spirit, and its application in our daily lives. 

I was yet to learn the Oneness of Spirit — that God 
is all and creates all and that Man is created in the 
image and likeness of God. 

I learned this lesson through suffering. The suffer- 
ing came suddenly. One day I thought I had the 
Light. I saw that what I was trying to write was 
but a continuation of "My Own Story," because it 
was a continuation of my own life. 

So sure was I that I had discovered the Way and 
had seen the Light, that I wrote this as an introduc- 
tion to my new book: 

When I wrote "My Own Story" I thought it was 
finished. I know now that it was not finished. My life 
was not finished. My story could not be finished. 

It is not finished now — neither my life nor my story. 
Neither can ever be finished. I expect to go on living 
forever — such is my belief in eternal life ; and so long 
as I live I shall have a story to tell. That I know is 
true. What I am not sure of is how I am going to tell 
the story, where I am going to tell it, and to whom I 
am going to tell it. 

This book is the continuation of "My Own Story." 
It is a new story more important than the old. One's 
life is important only as a means to an end. What one 
does with his life is more important. What one is in 
his life is still more important. That which one does 
and is in his own life stimulates others in their lives, 
and this, perhaps, is most important of all. 

_ The Power Within all of us is the source of all success 
—in business, in the professions, in teaching and preach- 
ing, in the family life, in public life. 

Finding the Power is the first step towards creative 
living. Analysing the Power is the second step. Applying 



[»] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



the Power and thus realizing its creativeness is the third 
step. 

First comes simple consciousness of life. I am alive. 
I know I am alive. Then understanding of life through 
analysis. Why am I alive? What am I living for? 
What can I do? How can I do it best? Finally, actual 
creative living; living up to one's highest character. 
Doing and being. 

Two days after I wrote this introduction, bang! 
I was taken suddenly ill — the second serious illness 
in my life. I was headed in the wrong direction — 
physically, mentally and spiritually. I had left Spirit 
out of my work, so I must suffer in mind and in body. 

As I look back now, from the vantage point of 
what I sincerely believe to be a new birth, I see that 
my illness was caused by my inverted thought, which 
is the cause of all illness. Much of this thought was 
unconscious, or sub-conscious, but real and alive, 
nevertheless. 

I see that Fear — my own personal fear (mental, 
not physical) and race-fear or generic fear (impreg- 
nated in the universal mind of man for ages) — caused 
my breakdown. 

I see that the lack of Faith — faith in life, in the 
present, in the future, in my work, in people, in God, 
helped to cause this Fear. 

I had faith, to a degree, but it was not based on 
understanding. And my mind, being analytical and 
logical, refused to act on the simple faith that I had 
unless that faith was based on understanding. And 
I lacked understanding. 



[12] 



FAILURE OF EFFICIENCY 



Well, I was stricken — with acute and complicated 
appendicitis. 

The moment I was stricken my faith grew stronger. 
My mind cleared of doubt. I forgot business. I 
forgot material things. I put my trust in God. I went 
back to the faith of our Fathers, to the faith of my 
Mother, to the faith of my Wife — to intuitive, native, 
naked, simple Faith. 

And I was saved. 

I never had a doubt that I would recover. Yet 
the surgeons told me later that my chance was one in 
twenty. 

I never had a dark moment in all my sickness and 
suffering. The Light was always there. Faith was 
there. Spirit was there. 

Oh, yes, I went through the stress of an operation 
and of convalescence. Two months in the hospital. 
Two months more in regaining strength. I could 
not heal the body with Spirit, as some people can, 
because I had not given myself fully to Spirit. 

During my convalescence I gave myself to God 
fully and unreservedly, I think — as I had done during 
a former illness. And with this surrender I began to 
get well. I convalesced without a complication, 
although the surgeons were sure I would have all 
sorts of difficulties and allied troubles. 

In the healing, Nature took her course, and time. I 
had transgressed the laws of Nature. I must suffer. 



[13] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



I must pay the penalty. I must atone. I must learn. 
I must be born again. 

There was a Presence in my room, day and night. 
The presence was in my Mother, now 91 years old, 
who has in her the simple faith of a beautiful woman 
who has learned through suffering. She was absent 
in body but always present in Spirit. 

The Presence was in my Wife — actually present in 
person every day and with me in spirit all night long 
— and some of the nights were long. She, too, has 
the faith that fire cannot burn, that water cannot 
quench, that even suffering cannot destroy. She has 
the love that passeth all understanding. 

The Presence was in the skill of the surgeons and 
physicians, in the tender care of the nurses, in the 
love of the Sisters who administer the hospital. 

The Presence was in my family, in my friends, 
especially in two business friends — Heads and Owners 
of the business in which I am engaged — both spiritual 
men, giving their lives to the service of humanity and 
the glorification of God. 

Everywhere and in everybody was the Presence, 
pure and undefiled, of Christ, the Divine Ideal, the 
Son of God, who has shown men how to become 
children of God, to talk with Him and walk with 
Him, to live in Him. 

When my strength began to come back my mind 
grew eager to speak, my fingers to write. But I 
was not ready. I needed still more understanding. 1 



[14] 



FAILURE OF EFFICIENCY 



felt the Truth, but I did not know the Truth well 
enough to write it down. 

Again the Way opened. 

I went to White Sulphur, in the mountains, away 
from the crowd. There I was storm-bound for a 
week. During that week I read more, thought more 
and realized more than, perhaps, in any other period 
of my life. 

I re-read Troward for the third time — all his works ; 
his Edinburgh and Dore lectures, his "Bible Mystery 
and Bible Meaning," his "Creative Process in the 
Individual," and his last book, "The Word and the 
Law." I read "Science and Health," Mary Baker 
Eddy's official statement of Christian Science. I read 
Grace Livingston Lutz's novel, "The Witness," appar- 
ently a personal application of Troward's philosophy. 
I even re-read a work on efficiency — and realized how 
far away from the Truth I had been. I lived over 
and over again the Bible, which had been ingrained 
in me in my youth. 

Was it chance that I went to White Sulphur and 
was there stormbound so that I could do nothing else 
but read ? Was it chance that I took these books with 
me — and only these books ? I know it was not chance. 
It was the working and unfolding of the Power 
within me. 

But I could not write at White Sulphur. I could 
read and think, but I could not write. The surround- 
ings in the hotel were formal and cold. Nature was 



[15] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



sympathetic, but the hotel was material. The flesh 
dominated the Spirit. I had not yet learned to control 
conditions; to affirm that man, reflecting spirit, is 
without limitations. 

So we journeyed again — in search of something; 
in search of peace, I suppose it was. And we found 
it — in Asheville, North Carolina. 

And now I can write. I am sitting in a "Big Room," 
120x80 feet, with solid walls, inside and outside, of 
native mountain boulders. Six columns, four feet 
square, also of rough stone, support the roof which 
must be 25 feet high. At both ends of the room are 
huge fireplaces, the stone work reaching to the ceiling, 
the fire openings large enough to hold 50 men at one 
time. A pipe organ is in one corner of the room. 
It plays just often enough to keep the atmosphere 
charged with Spiritual feeling. 

The entire building is constructed of boulders, 
quarried out of Sunset Mountain against whose bosom 
it rests facing the sun. It is a veritable Temple of 
Nature, rough-hewn and primitive; a soul sanctuary, 
yet with bodily comforts. It is the purest marriage 
of matter and spirit I have seen. 

The outlook is over a plateau where Asheville 
dwells, to a range of mountains, with many peaks 
5,000 to 6,000 feet high. Today the mountains are 
snow clad and in the rarified air they stand out like 
white sentinels of Heaven. 

We are in the "Land of the Sky" and if what I 



16] 



FAILURE OF EFFICIENCY 



write seems at times "in the clouds" the reason is 
apparent. I can write now, and what I shall write 
will be an effort to explain the Creative Power Within, 
to analyze it, and to realize its application to our 
daily life on earth. 



[17] 



CHAPTER III 

THE BEGINNING OF CREATIVE LIFE 



THE beginning of life is Creation. And the be- 
ginning of Creation is life. 
Thus when we seek to pry into the origin of 
life we begin to reason in circles and get nowhere. It is 
the old query of the egg and the chicken ; did the egg 
create the chicken or did the chicken create the egg — 
which was first? 

It is futile for man, in his present stage of evolu- 
tion, to try to "unscrew the inscrutable," as Troward 
puts it. It is futile for us to try to tear away the 
veil that shrouds the mystery of the origin of all 
things. Man has never succeeded in creating the 
animate from the inanimate — and he never shall, else 
man would be God. 

But man can speculate and philosophize — to his 
profit and to the profit of the world — on the source 
of life, the Creative Power within man. The Source 
of a thing is not its origin. The origin of a thing 
is the source of its being. The source of a river is 
where the water bubbles out of the spring that feeds 
its headwaters. The origin of a river is the first spring 
— the beginning of water itself — and that leads us 



[18] 



THE BEGINNING OF CREATIVE LIFE 



back to the creation of the universe and to the creation 
of the primary life which created the universe. 

The creation of life, itself, we cannot comprehend. 
If God created everything, then who created God? we 
ask. The only answer is God created Himself. And 
there our investigation must end. 

The only fact we can lay hold of with our physical 
senses is that life is. We know that. Then if life 
is, life was, — life comes only from life. If life is 
and was, it is not hard to take the next step and be- 
lieve that life ever shall be. 

We must accept life as always existing and never 
ending — eternal, without limit of time. We must 
accept life as infinite — without limit of space. 

Whether or not we believe that the individual's 
life is eternal (and the writer surely does) all reason- 
ing men must believe that life itself, somewhere, in 
some one, or in some thing, is eternal. Otherwise we 
must believe the absurdity that life proceeds from 
nothing and shall end in nothing — in other words, that 
life is nothing; a reductio ad absitrdam, which one 
who feels life within him cannot accept. 

Granting, therefore, that life is, ever was, and ever 
shall be, we can proceed logically to say that every- 
thing that is, including man and man's works on 
earth, is created by this All-Originating Life. And we 
can examine reverently into the source of this Crea- 
tive Life, study its character, and trace its method 
of operation. For God surely wishes us to know 



19] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



ourselves and to know Him, else all teachings of the 
Bible are false. 

In the study of creation the premises upon which 
we shall build are these — 

i. All life is One and God is the one and only 
Creator. 

2. God is Spirit — the all-originating universal 
Spirit that ever was and ever is because It is eternal 
and infinite — without limit of time or space. 

3. Spirit is Thought. "In the beginning was the 
Word (Thought) and the Word was God." 

4. Thought creates substance — the ether that is 
everywhere. 

5. Substance by the action of Thought resolves into 
Form. 

6. From Form, created by Thought out of Sub- 
stance, evolve the mineral, vegetable, animal and 
human kingdoms, as we know them on the face of 
the earth. 

Why do we say Spirit (or God) is Thought? Be- 
cause thought is back of everything we do. Man does 
nothing without thought. Often man's thought is 
careless — "thoughtless," as we call it. Sometimes 
thought is unconscious, or subconscious. But it is a 
truism that thought is back of everything we do. 

Now, if thought is back of everything we do, then 
thought is back of everything we are. And if thought 
is back of everything we are, then thought is back of 
man's creation. If thought is back of man's creation, 

faol 



THE BEGINNING OF CREATIVE LIFE 



it is an easy step to believe that thought is back of 
all creation. 

Thought, therefore, is the Creative Power — the all- 
originating Creative Power. 

Troward in his "Creative Process in the Individ- 
ual," describes evolution in these terms — 

I. "Universal Spirit (Thought) by self -contem- 
plation produces Universal Substance. 3 ' 

Stop a moment and let this thought get into our 
minds. It is not difficult to grasp this truth if one 
realizes that Spirit is Thought. Thought can come 
from nothing else than thinking. Therefore, Thought 
must always be active, must always be alive, must 
always be thought. 

But thought is impossible without one's thinking of 
something. "A penny for your thoughts" we say — 
we admit and know there must be an object as a 
result of thought. Now, if there must be an object 
of thought, then thought must create that object. 
Thus Original Thought, which in its very nature is 
alive, by its own self -contemplation creates substance, 
and substance resolves (or revolves, if you please) 
into Form, Form into what we call Matter and Matter 
into mortal Man — "out of the earth was Man created." 

"The Spirit of Life must feel alive," says Troward. 
To feel alive It must be conscious. To be conscious 
It must have something to be conscious of. There 
must be an active (something to act — Spirit) and a 
passive (something to be acted upon — substance)." 



[21] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



2. "From, Universal Substance Universal Spirit 
produces cosmic creation as the expression of itself as 
functioning in time and space." 

Cosmic creation is the universe — the sun, moon, 
stars and earth, as we know them, and everything that 
is in them, over them, around them, on them, or of 
them, whether we comprehend these things or not. 
Cosmic creation is everything that is and was and 
shall be. 

Note Troward's phrase — "Universal Spirit produces 
cosmic creation as the EXPRESSION of Itself as 
functioning in time and space." 

Thought, to fulfill itself, must express itself. The 
carpenter thinks a chair, and the chair when it is 
made, is the expression of his thought. A chair can- 
not be created without the thought of a chair. A 
chair cannot create itself. But thought of a chair 
can create the chair. And the thought "chair" is not 
alive until it becomes a chair. 

That the chair is real, that it is matter, we discover 
as soon as we touch it, or bump our shins against it 
in the dark. But that the chair is Thought is a little 
harder to comprehend. Yet, the chair, as matter, will 
some day crumble and fall to pieces as the wood rots 
and decays. But the thought of a chair exists forever. 
Thought, in this sense, is therefore, the reality and 
Matter is unreality. 

"This seems logical," we say. "I see that man's 
thoughts, plus man's hands create a chair — but how 



[22; 



THE BEGINNING OF CREATIVE LIFE 



did God create the millions of stars and stellar sys- 
tems ? I cannot comprehend the creation of the great 
universe." 

No, we cannot fully comprehend the creation of 
the universe, nor of man, nor of life itself. And yet, 
we talk through the telephone — the voice traveling 
with lightning speed along a thin strand of wire — 
and we do not doubt. We speak into a wireless 
telephone transmitter and our voice travels without 
wires across the ocean three thousand miles. 

What carries the voice? Ether — not air; the voice 
travels faster than air. The voice travels on waves 
of ether, the waves being set in motion by sound, the 
sound of the voice. Vibration, started by sound, re- 
solves the ether into form — into the form of the 
words spoken into the wireless transmitter. 

Now, this is just the manner in which the universe 
was created, is Troward's theory. Thought — ex- 
pressed in the word (a breathing, according to the 
true meaning of word in its original Hebrew) 
started vibration of the ether (the primary substance 
projected by Thought as its polar opposite) and form 
resulted. Form, science tells us, is only vibration and 
stabilization (through equilibrium) of some minute 
substance yet undiscovered, but which Troward calls 
ether. 

It is a deep subject, of course, and we leave it here 
to be pursued by those who are interested, in the larger 
discussion to be found in Troward's books. 



[23] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



The third development of Creation, Troward states 
as follows — 

3. "From the initial movement of producing cosmic 
creation Universal Spirit proceeds to more highly 
specialized modes of self-contemplation in a continu- 
ally ascending scale — creating first, the mineral king- 
dom ; second, the vegetable kingdom ; third the animal 
kingdom ; fourth, the human kingdom. 

Form first appears in what we call the mineral king- 
dom — the earth, as we know it, the sun, moon and 
stars as we see them. "Spirit is the Alpha and Form 
the Omega in the creative process," says Troward. 
"The creative series is incomplete until solid material 
form is reached. The manifestation of Spirit in Form 
is the eternal principle of the Creative Process whether 
in the evolution of a world system or in that of the 
individual — but Spirit is not tied down to particular 
forms. How does the Spirit manifest Itself in 
Life? Spirit is Principle and manifestation is a 
growth proceeding from Principle — form in which 
the Principle becomes active. Therefore, Life- 
Principle must always provide itself with a body in 
which to function." 

And thus man is born with a physical body, although 
man is made in the image and likeness of God, which 
is Spirit, and thus without form. 

Note that Man is made in the image and likeness 
of God. Man is not God. Man is God's expression 
of Himself — the Divine Ideal. The Spirit wants to 



[24] 



THE BEGINNING OF CREATIVE LIFE 



see Itself in Form, and the very Thought of this, by 
the inherent creative power of Thought, creates Man 
in the image and likeness of God. 

"The first stage in creation is activity," explains 
Troward. "The material correspondence of activity is 
motion. The only motion which holds itself in equili- 
brium is rotary motion. The Universe, which is me- 
chanical motion, rotary motion, is therefore the first 
stage of creation." 

The second stage in creation is simple unconscious 
life — plant life. The tree is alive but it knows it not. 

The third stage in creation is conscious life — animal 
life. The horse is alive and he knows he is alive, but 
there his consciousness ends. A horse does not know 
he is a horse. 

The fourth stage in creation is individual life or 
self-consciousness. Man is alive and he knows he 
is alive. Man also knows he is Man, and not Horse. 
Man is conscious of self — of the individual. With 
self consciousness comes the power of language — the 
expression of thought. 

Right here we find the purpose of Man's creation. 
The Spirit wants to enjoy the reality of its own life. 
To do this Spirit manifests itself in Form. "Form is 
the necessary channel for the self -differentiation of 
Spirit and its Expression in multitudinous life and 
beauty," says Troward. "What the Spirit contem- 
plates as being that It becomes." 

Man is individualized Spirit. The real Man — the 



[25] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



soul that lives forever — is the image and likeness of 
God and is therefore perfect Spirit. But Man, mortal 
man, the mind and body, is only what each man 
creates of himself. 

To make this "man's creation" as nearly like the 
perfect Man, which is God's creation, is the job set 
before all men by God. 

This is accomplished through THOUGHT and its 
expression in words (language) and in deeds (man's 
activity) and requires "the exercise of conscious selec- 
tion and initiative on the part of individual man" to 
enable the Spirit "to enjoy the reality of its own life," 
to enable It "to see Itself in Form," to manifest Itself 
in time and space. 

Thus Man thinks with God, works with God, walks 
with God, has his Being in God, and conversely, God 
thinks in man, works in man, walks in man, and has 
the fullness of His Being in Man. 

As we help God, God helps us. As we walk with 
God, God walks with us. As we work with God, 
God works with us. 

In proportion as we become like God, as we grow 
into the image and likeness of God we reach the next 
stage of life — the stage of cosmic consciousness — 
which is the highest stage man can reach on this 
earthly plane. 



fa6] 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CREATIVE POWER IN MAN 



THE creative power of Spirit exists in all men. 
God is in all and of all. God is Spirit and 
Spirit is the all-originating and eternal Cre- 
ator. 

Spirit will create in man in proportion as man 
allows It to create. Here is the "Power Within" — 
the all-creating, all-wise, all-good, and all-powerful 
Power that I discovered within me when a child, and 
which all men discover within themselves sooner or 
later in their lives. It is a Power we can use for 
our own good, if we understood how it functions, 
how it creates, and if we will elect to use it for the 
good of others and the good of God. 

If we attempt to use this Power selfishly and nega- 
tively we raise up a destructive power, the product of 
our inverted thought — the polar opposite of the Con- 
structive Power. We then deny the Power Within, 
we deny God. And we suffer— through our own 
error. 

The creative process is always the same, because 
there is only one Creative Power — whether the process 



[273 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



is operating in individual Man or in the universe. 
These are the steps, as laid down by Troward — 

i. Spirit creates by self -contemplation. (Thought 
manifesting itself in form). 

2. What Spirit contemplates Itself as being that 
It becomes. (Spirit individualizes Itself in Man). 

3. Man is individualized Spirit. 

4. Therefore, what Man contemplates as the Law 
of his Being, becomes the Law of his Being. 

"As man thinketh in his heart," said Solomon, "so 
is he." We are the products of our thoughts. 

Here is the whole secret of the creative principle 
operating in individual man. Man creates by his 
thoughts. We become what our thoughts are. We 
create what our thoughts create. 

This truth is easily comprehended by analyzing how 
material things which man produces with his hands 
come into being. The architect must make a plan 
before the builders can make a building. The archi- 
tect must think that plan, must picture the building in 
his mind, before he can place the plan on paper or 
draw a picture of the proposed building. An artist 
must first see the picture in his mind before he can 
paint it on canvas. 

Thought is first; the concrete expression or mani- 
festation of thought follows naturally. 

Now, if we remember that Thought is eternal and 
that we are the product of Thought, we begin to 



[28] 



THE CREATIVE POWER IN MAN 



realize that the Creative Force is forever operating 
within us. And our own mortal thought is cease- 
lessly at work also — sub-consciously, even when the 
body is asleep. If our mortal thought corresponds 
and is in harmony with all-originating Thought we 
create constructively; if not we create destructively. 
We cannot stop man-thought nor Spirit-Thought. 
Creation is without beginning and without end ; it has 
always been in the state of activity, it always shall 
be. "To fully exercise its creative power," says 
Troward, "is the sub-conscious eternal desire of all 
souls," and if this be true of man, who derives this 
desire from God, it must also be true of God. 

What does this truth mean to Man? What can it 
mean, except that man must go on and on in his 
evolution until he becomes the perfect image or like- 
ness of God — the Divine Ideal. 

If this be so, we might as well begin Here and 
Now — today — to do our best. If we do not do our 
best today we shall have to do our best tomorrow or 
the next day. If we go the wrong way, in our 
thoughts and in our actions, select error and evil, 
selfishness and sin, envy and hatred, sickness and 
sorrow, we shall only have to re-trace our steps later. 
Some day we must take the right road, and the sooner 
we take it the happier we shall be. 

That man can grow into the image and likeness of 
God was proved by Jesus Christ, the Son of Man 

[29] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



who became the Son of God. Jesus came into the 
world to demonstrate this truth to man. 

Few men — perhaps none — will realize this Divine 
Ideal on the earth plane of existence, but all men shall 
realize this state of perfection on some plane of 
existence. And where we leave off in our evolution 
here, in this physical life, we shall begin again on 
the next plane of consciousness, going higher and 
higher in the soul's development until we reach the 
image and likeness of God. 

"Where shall I begin to live the Creative Life?" 
we cry. "How shall I begin ?" 

Begin with the obvious. Begin at home — within 
ourselves. Begin with our thoughts. Begin with our 
bodies. Begin with our wills. Begin in the family. 
Be kind. Be true. Be real. Be unselfish. Help 
others. 

Carry this positive action into business. Search for 
the truth. Live the truth. Put truth and love and 
wisdom into business. Search out the law — of God, 
of nature, of life, of business. Apply the law. Live 
in harmony with the law. 

The test of harmony is beauty. Be beautiful in 
Spirit, and our actions and our works will be beauti- 
ful. Be Love, and our actions and our works will 
be good. 

God is Truth. God is Love. God is Good. God is 
Beauty. If we are to be "like" God we must be good 
and beautiful and true. 



[30] 



THE CREATIVE POWER IN MAN 



All ethics is based on the good. All aesthetics is 
based on the beautiful. All philosophy and science are 
based on the true. All creative life has as its base 
Truth, Love, Good, Wisdom and Beauty. 



[31] 



CHAPTER V 



HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT WORKS IN MAN 



HOW shall I grow in the Creative Life" we say 
impatiently, "how shall I grow into the image 
and likeness of God? I know the all-or- 
iginating Spirit — the Power Within — is within me. I 
know this Power is ceaselessly at work creating. But 
how can I use this power, how can I direct it ?" 

The answer is : — we must not direct it, we must dis- 
tribute the Creative Spirit. We must open our minds 
and our hearts so that the Spirit can flow through us. 
The Spirit directs itself. Man is only a distributor 
of the Creative Force. Our job is to get our bodies 
and our minds and our hearts into condition to receive 
the Force and to distribute it. 

And here again Troward shows the way, simply 
and truly. Follow these steps carefully. 

1. The moving power in the creative process is 
the self -contemplation of Spirit (Thought). 

2. Man is a miniature reproduction of the Orig- 
inal Spirit. Man's contemplation of Spirit becomes 
Spirit's contemplation of Itself from the standpoint of 
man's individuality. 



[32] 



HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT WORKS IN MAN 

3. Therefore, man develops a Creative power by 
contemplating the Originating Spirit as the source of 
the power man wants to develop. 

4. The way for man to use this power and apply 
it is for man to contemplate himself as surrounded 
by the conditions which man wants to produce. 

In simple words, think God, live God, work with 
God, walk with God. "Our commonest actions will 
be hallowed by Divine Presence," says Troward, "if 
we form a daily habit of walking with God." 

Be not afraid to speak of God, to speak with God. 
The great evil of the day is that man has formed the 
habit of setting God apart from his daily life, of 
keeping Him out of business, out of science, out of 
art, out of philosophy, out of government, to be 
thought of and lived with only on the Sabbath Day. 

All is God, and God is all. We cannot shut God out 
of business, out of our lives, however hard we try, 
and live. Take God as a Father, as a Brother, as a 
Partner— and the way of life will open. 

"But how, how can I know God, how can I let 
this Creative Force work in me, how can my thoughts 
create?" our mortal mind asks still impatiently. 

Think of something you want — something with 
Truth in it, with Love in it, with Beauty in it and 
see how easily it is created. 

Before I wrote this book I thought the book. I 
visualized the book concretely, I pictured it even in 
type and binding. I saw the book already published 

[33] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



and being read, and doing good. I saw the form of 
the book, the appearance of the pages, the type, the 
words and sentences, and paragraphs in print. When 
I had formed this image of the book the book wrote 
itself. 

You want a better position than you now have in 
business, a better and fuller place in life. All right, 
think of that better place and you in it as already 
existing. Form the mental image. Keep on thinking 
of that higher position, keep the image constantly 
before you — and no, you will not suddenly be trans- 
ported into the higher job, but you will find that you 
are preparing yourself to occupy the better position 
in life — your body, your energy, your understanding, 
your heart will all grow up to the job — and when 
you are ready, after hard work, you will get the job 
and the higher place in life. 

There must be Growth — in understanding, in Spir- 
ituality. 

"First the general life-principle — the Spirit," says 
Troward, "must be acknowledged and recognized." 

"Second, this principle must be localized in indi- 
vidual man." 

"Third, must come the grozvth of the Vehicle 
(Man) as it is projected by the individualized Spirit 
with more or less energy." 

The law of Growth is a stumbling block to man. 

Everything grows. Trees grow. Plants grow. 
Animals grow. Man grows. And everything grows 

[34] 



HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT WORKS IN MAN 

according to Law. Even Christ's miracles were per- 
formed not in contravention of the law but in the 
fulfilment of the law. 

Law is Truth. The entire universe is controlled by 
law, by Truth. Man is no exception. 

We must not grow impatient. Nor must we become 
lazily patient. We must not sit idly by and hope 
for what most people call a "miracle" — something that 
happens contrary to law. We must not expect to be 
thrown into a job in business or a position in life 
which we are not ready to hold. We grow into higher 
things by doing higher things. 

The law of Growth is this : — we grow as we admit 
the Holy Spirit into our lives and perfect the man- 
machine. 

"Nature unaided fails," is only another way of say- 
ing that God needs man's help to individualize Him- 
self. And man needs God to individualize himself. 
To individualize oneself is simply to make more of 
one's individuality — to live in greater fullness of one's 
self. 

"By individual selection and initiative to use the 
Creative Power," says Troward, which means by 
striving to fashion ourselves in the image and like- 
ness of God, "we become not less active, but more 
active, not less alive but more alive, not less ourselves 
but more ourselves." 

The more we lose ourselves in the Spirit the 

[3Sl 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



greater we find our own individuality. The more we 
enter into the Spirit of Life the more the Spirit of 
Life enters into us. The more we enter into the spirit 
of our work, the more work and the better work we 
are able to do. The more we enter into the organiza- 
tion of business, the more we co-operate with one 
another, the greater in strength and power and help- 
fulness and happiness we grow individually. 

If we open our hearts to the Creative Power Within 
us, recognize that Power as all-Originating Spirit, 
and so live that our bodies and our minds become an 
efficient reciprocal vehicle for Spirit's manifestation, 
we will never fear that whatever we wish will be right, 
will be good, will be — will come into full being. "God 
is Love," reasons Troward. "Love is the only ulti- 
mate motive power it is possible to conceive. The 
creations of Love, therefore, cannot be otherwise than 
good and beautiful." 

How then, arise disease and suffering, error and evil, 
cruelty and ugliness, discord and sin, selfishness and 
jealousy, hatred and envy — how comes the endless 
string of negatives into the world? Who creates 
them — the Devil? No, even the Devil does not create 
them, except as man first creates the Devil. And 
this is just what happens. "The lower mentality of 
man," says Troward, "conceives an opposite quality, 
(from Good, God, Love) — Evil (Devil) — and this pro- 
duces a motive power the opposite of Love, which is 
Fear. And so Fear is born into the world giving rise 



[36J 



HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT WORKS IN MAN 

to the whole brood of evil, anger, hatred, envy, lies, 
violence, etc. 

Again Troward explains the working of the Spirit 
as follows — "The Spirit is Life, Love, Light, Power, 
Peace, Beauty, Joy. 

1. Life; but Life guided by 

2. Love; which brings 

3. Light — the primary all-inclusive perception of 
boundless manifestations to be; which in turn results 
in 

4. Power — which is life urged by Love, or the 
desire for recognition, and by Light, or the pure 
perception of the law of Infinite Possibility. 

5. Peace — because such Life is the Spirit of the 
Whole, and thus cannot set one part in antagonism 
to another. 

6. Beauty — because Spirit must duly proportion 
every part to every other part, and this is Beauty — 
harmony. 

7. Joy — because it must find pleasure in its self- 
expression. 

To let the ceaseless Spirit of creativeness operate 
in us we must affirm the creativeness of the Spirit. 
We must affirm God. We must know God. We must 
recognize God. We must say God is. We must say 
God is in us. 

Affirming means living. We must live God. 

Lip-loyalty, about which we heard so much during 
the progress of the Great War, lip-affirmation and 

[37] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



lip-prayer are of the same nature. Unless the soul 
speaks and lives in affirmation we really do not affirm 
anything. 

Living with God is far better than praying to God. 
When the Bible says "pray without ceasing" it means 
live without ceasing the affirmation of God. 

It is the old, old story, pointed out so many times 
in this book, and which I, like others, must learn 
again and again — "we must first get into the Spirit 
of Life before the Spirit of Life can get into us." 

All limitations which man places on his own life 
and works (God places no limitations on any man) 
are due to the lack of affirmation of the creativeness 
of God. 

We say, "I believe," but we believe only half way, 
or a third of the way, or a quarter. Only Christ be- 
lieved fully. Man becomes like Christ in proportion 
as he believes — and lives his belief. 

The individual is not his only limitation. "Race 
thought," says Troward, or generic thought, the in- 
verted thought of man since his fall, "limits the indi- 
vidual by strong currents of negative suggestion based 
on the fallacy that the perpetuation of the race 
requires the death of the individual. The generic race 
personality makes us human beings," and because we 
are human beings we are limited by the race thought 
of the ages. 

Man is born to sin, the race-old thought goes — and 
man sins. Man is born to sickness and suffering — 



[38] 



HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT WORKS IN MAN 

and man is sick and he suffers. Man is born to die — 
and man dies. 

All this thought is inverted thought — the affirma- 
tion of the Negative instead of the Positive. 

All inverted thought proceeds out of the mortal 
mind of mortal man. Negation is of man. Affirma- 
tion is of God. 

God has not created evil, error, sin, sorrow, sickness, 
or death. Man, in his inverted thought, creates them 
ceaselessly. 

To get away from a feeling of limitation man must 
rid his thoughts of any limitation to the Spirit. "The 
Spirit knows all, does all, loves all, is all," must be 
our ceaseless thought. This thought must become a 
habit — an attitude of mind. Not that we must give 
up all other thoughts. We must go on living and 
doing and thinking and taking our part in the world, 
but we must put this Great Thought "in the back of 
our heads,'' as we say, and keep it there so that we 
will think that thought sub-consciously. 

Thinking the Great Thought ceaselessly and sub- 
consciously will not interefere with the flow of other 
thoughts — human thoughts. On the contrary these 
human thoughts will flow more freely, more construc- 
tively, more affirmatively, more creatively. We will 
find ourselves doing more, knowing more, growing 
more, loving more and being more. 

We must break the old habit of saying, "it can't 

[39] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



be done" or "I can't do it" by saying, "it can be done" 
and "I can do it." 

No thing can't be done. Everything can be done. 

The first statement is the negative Negation — 

and it shows that the negative is nothing — no thing. 
The second statement is the positive — Affirmative — 
and it shows that the positive, the affirmative, is every- 
thing. 

Human thought is not all inverted, not all negative, 
not all destructive. The vast part of it is con- 
structive. And this vast part of constructive 
human thought forms what is called "cosmic thought." 
It is not the great all-originating Thought. Neither 
is it the inverted thought of man. It is what is some- 
times called the "wisdom of the ages." Whatever 
exists generically in man's thought constitutes cosmic 
thought, whether written down in books and preserved 
or whether existing "in the air." 

In either form this "cosmic thought" is real. And 
this cosmic thought is also creative. Man can reach 
out into the cosmos and lay hold of this cosmic 
thought and use it in his life, his work, his business. 

It is a dangerous power, this cosmic thought, be- 
cause it is a two edged sword — it can cut right or 
it can cut wrong. All-originating Spirit can never lead 
in a wrong direction, can never do wrong, can never 
be wrong. But cosmic thought can lead wrongly, 
can do wrongly, can be wrong itself, just as man uses 
it and applies it. 



[40] 



HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT WORKS IN MAN 

Cosmic thought can work with God, or it can work 
against God. But cosmic thought can never triumph 
over God, because nothing can triumph over good. 

Cosmic thought can lead man astray or it can lead 
men to God, just as the individual man uses it and 
applies it. 

In the hands of a strong man, cosmic thought can 
lead whole peoples into bondage, into death. 

The Great War is the result of inverted cosmic 
thought. German efficiency is inverted cosmic 
thought. It is creative thought, highly creative, but 
what it creates, the wisdom and skill and power it 
creates — is being used in inversion — for error, evil, 
hatred, selfishness, sin and death. 

The Prussian Kaiser is the impersonification of the 
Spirit of Anti-Christ against which the Bible warns. 
His is the power of the soul of man over the Soul of 
Nature. 

"The Soul of Nature is quite impersonal," says 
Troward, "and therefore, the moral quality of this 
action depends entirely on the human operator." 

The human operator in German efficiency is the 
Kaiser. The secrets of the soul of Nature, their power, 
their creativeness, have been wrested from cosmic 
thought by the scientists of the German people. The 
German people themselves, have been led into bondage 
by the lure of the power of these secrets and by the 
inverted thought and will of their ruler, the Kaiser — 
and all Germany fights for wrong, for evil, for hatred, 

[41] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



for envy, for sin, for death, while all the time thinking 
inversely (the people — not the leaders) that they are 
fighting for right, for good, for love, for truth, for 
the life of the Fatherland. 

German efficiency says "Know thyself" — and pro- 
ceeds to analyze man and nature, formulating a system 
of work and life and government that for simple ac- 
complishment is the most efficient the world has ever 
seen. 

But German efficiency has forgotten tiie Biblical 
injunction — "Know God." 



[421 



CHAPTER VI 



REPLACING EFFICIENCY WITH CREATIVENESS 



WE are now ready to re-write the formula of 
efficiency in terms of Spiritual Creativeness. 
We shall see where efficiency is lacking. We 
shall see how efficiency leaves God out of its plan. We 
shall see how Spiritual Creativeness bases everything 
on God, on Truth, on Love, on Life itself. 

Let us re-state efficiency in terms of Creation — 
The statement goes like this — 

THE CREATIVE POWER 
(The Power Within) 

In the Universe 
The Creative Power in the Universe, being omnisci- 
ent, omnipotent, and omnipresent, does the thing that 
is to be done in the wisest, simplest, best, shortest, 
quickest and most harmonious way. 

In the Individual 
The Creative Power in the individual approaches 
the Divine Power in proportion as the individual 
grows into "the image and likeness of God" by making 
the most of life, of time, of capacity, of money, of 
opportunity. 

[43] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



In Humanity 

The Creative Power in cooperative humanity is 
harmonious team-work of creative individuals, living 
and working together, giving and taking, and helping 
one another for the common good of men and the 
manifestation of God. 

Re-writing The Chart of Efficiency in terms of 
true Creativeness we derive this Chart of Creative 
Living. 

A Chart of Creative Living 

t. HEALTH 

— whole, normal — body, mind, soul, Spirit — vigor, 
strength. 

J. ENERGY 

— force; activity; physical, mental and spiritual power. 

\. UNDERSTANDING 

—light, contemplation, wisdom, truly knowing and 
logical thinking power, intelligence, intellect, percep- 
tion, reason, judgment, comprehension, skill, good 
sense. 

*. ACTION 

— the will in command; willingness to do; the body, 
mind, soul and spirit in action; constructive industry; 
active energy; diligence. 

5. ENDURANCE 

— spiritual and physical stamina; back-bone; forti- 
tude; bearing with patience; unyielding; holding the 
fort; lasting quality. 

5. HOSPITALITY 

— love, kindness, sympathy, politeness, courtesy, tact, 
graciousness, gentleness, charm of manner. 

7. CAREFULNESS 

— truth; order; with-care; serious attention of mind; 
mindful, heedful, exactness, accuracy, precision, ac- 
cording to law honesty, celerity, promptness, punc- 
tuality. 

B. THOROUGHNESS 

— going through to the end; finishing the job; carry- 
ing the message to Garcia; following up and check- 
ing up; planning and systematizing. 

9. CONCENTRATION 

— prolonged attention; focussing one's mind and 
effort on the thing to be done; "this one thing I 



do. 



f44l 



REPLACING EFFICIENCY WITH CREATIVENESS 



OBSERVATION 

— seeing, not merely looking; spiritual (inward) as 

well as physical seeing. 
READING and STUDY 

— including the asking of questions in order to learn. 
MEMORY 

— intensified by interest and retained by association 

of ideas. 
IMAGINATION or VISUALIZATION 

— creative thinking; getting the customer's view- 
point; looking ahead; foresightedness. 
INTUITION 

— inner light; the light of the cosmic mind aud the 

light of the Spiritual mind. 
APPLICATION TO PRACTISE 

— practical use of knowledge, wisdom, understanding 

and intuition. 
PRACTISE AS A HABIT 

—practise makes perfect; experience. 



1. ABILITY 

— mental, physical and spiritual equipment. 

2. DEPENDABILITY 

—character, integrity, reliability. 

3. INTEREST 

— enthusiasm in one's work; earnestness; zeal; eager- 
ness to do and to learn. 

4. SELF-RELIANCE 

— assurance; self-confidence; poaitiveness; poise; 
affirmativeness. 

5. TENACITY 

—grit; stick-to-it-iveness; energetic striving. 

6. CONSERVATION 

—of time, energy, capacity, money, opportunity. 

7. VISION 

— breadth of mind and view; open-mindedness and 
open heartedness; affirmation of Spirit. 

8. AMBITION 

—the desire to grow; the soul's longing for living- 
ness in its fullness. 

9. LOYALTY 

—to God, to one's self, to others, to the business; 
allegiance, sincerity, fidelity, honesty, duty. 

10. FAITH , „ ,\ ,-,_„.- 

—physical courage, mental hope and Spiritual belief. 

11. INITIATIVE 

—selection; doing the right thing without being 
told; devising ways and means; originality; 
individuality. 



[45] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



B 


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I 


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10. 



GOOD THOUGHTS 

—the starting point of all ereativenesa. 
GOOD HABITS 

—•the result of good thoughts; purity, temperance, 

moderation. 

GOOD FREINDS 
—mental and moral help; the "herding instinct." 

SELF-CONTROL 
—the real self in control; wise use of one's equipment. 

HAPPINESS 

— cheerfulness, joy — an asset in work; well-being, 
prosperity, comfort. 

THRIFT 

— security; another asset in work and life. 

PEACE AND CONTENTMENT 
— equanimity, equipoise, harmony; equable state of 
mind conducive to good work; the feeling of one 
who does not needlessly pine after what is beyond 
his reach (at present) nor fret at the hardships of 
his condition; at the same time earnestly striving 
to improve himself and conditions. 

A SENSE OF HUMOR 

—ability to recognize inverted thought and to com- 
prehend its destructiveness; the saving sense of 
humor — saving us from our mortal selves. 

CO-OPERATION 
—working together in harmony and on signal; giv- 
ing orders and taking orders; the composite; live 
and let live; give and take. 

REVERENCE and WORSHIP 
—Knowing and living God. 



Re-writing the "Way to Efficiency" in terms of 
Creativeness we formulate this method — 

The Way to Creative Living 



1. ANALYZE 

—life, spirit, man, our work, our record, by the what, 
why and how system. 

2. PLAN OUR WORK 

— schedule it, put it into order on paper and in 
itself. 

3. WORK OUR PLAN 

— put it into practise; dispatch it on schedule time. 

4. CHECK-UP 

—and follow up to see that the work is done. 



[46] 



REPLACING EFFICIENCY WITH CREATIVENESS 





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ASK QUESTIONS 

— take counsel and learn. 
ADAPT OURSELVES 

— adapt ourselves to Truth and adapt conditions to 

ourselves. 
STANDARDIZE 

—ourselves, our work, our methods, our play, our 

life, according to the Divine Standard. 
4. USE COMMON SENSE 

— true intuition, based on right feelings; reason, 

judgment. 



SET A GOAL 

— form ideals and desires, keeping the goal high and 
raising it constantly; picturing the goal in our 
minds — visualizing. 
STRIVE TO REACH THE GOAL 
— and the reward, material, mental and spiritual. 
-3. DISCIPLINE OURSELVES 
-to do. 
•to restrain. 





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. 



1. CO-OPERATE 

—give and receive; live and let live; fair play to all 
for the good of all; co-operate with God. 

2. HAVE FAITH 

— believe; brook no discouragement, no matter how 
hard the road. 

3. MAKE YOUR WORK YOUR LIFE 

— not a means to an end, but the end itself; not a 
necessary evil, but the supreme good; the complete 
development of self in an unselfish spirit; living 
God. 

ALL LEADING TO LIBERTY 



Now compare the "Chart of Creative Living," as 
we have just outlined it, with "The Chart of Effi- 
ciency," published on pages 5 and 6. The changes in the 
second chart are indicated in bold face type, and may 
be quickly seen. 

What have we taken away? Nothing. 

What have we added? Everything. 



[47] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



We have added Spirit which is everything — all in 
all. Efficiency vitalized with Spirit becomes true posi- 
tive creativeness. Efficiency without Spirit becomes 
inverse creativeness — destructiveness. 

We must realize that even destructiveness is caused 
by creativeness. Decay comes from creativeness. The 
tree decays because the atoms in the fibre of the wood 
are no longer held together in equilibrium, so they 
seek new polarity, they fly to a "new mate" — first 
becoming decayed wood, (a new creation) ; then gas 
in the air — also a new creation. 

The physical body dies and decomposes — which 
means goes back to its original elements. Matter 
never dies, it merely changes its form. Substance, 
— Original Substance, — being the projection of Spirit, 
is as everlasting as Spirit. The changes in Nature 
that we see all around us all the time, and the changes 
in our bodies, are only new creations. If these 
changes, these new creations manifest themselves con- 
structively they build up ; if they manifest themselves 
destructively, they pull down. 

Solid rock is not solid, it is only dense. Science 
shows that the densest rock, the densest steel, the 
densest matter of any nature, is composed of minute 
particles of substance ready to fly apart once equili- 
brium is taken away, being held together by cohesion. 

Two forces are always at work in nature. One cen- 
trifugal — pulling apart (expansion) ; the other centri- 
petal — holding together (cohesion). The more the 



[48] 



REPLACING EFFICIENCY WITH CREATIVENESS 

centripetal force controls the centrifugal the denser 
becomes the form of the substance. 

Substance itself is always one and the same — in 
any form. First Science reduced matter to the mole- 
cule, then to the atom, then to the electron. Science 
does not believe the electron is the ultimate — the ir- 
reducible residuum, but it is the ultimate so far dis- 
covered. 

In the end — when we know all things, see all things, 
and live all things — when we become absolute indi- 
vidualized Spirit, we will find that substance is noth- 
ing, that it is merely the projection of Spirit. In this 
sense Christian Science states a great truth, that 
matter is nothing and Spirit is all. 

Think a moment to realize what projection really is. 
Our image is projected in a mirror and we see our- 
selves. But the image while real is not ourselves. 
A lantern slide is projected on a screen, and the pic- 
ture while real is only a picture, not the thing de- 
picted. Lantern slides in motion — a reel — are pro- 
jected on a screen, and we have a motion picture or a 
life-picture, because the picture is in action — it seems 
to live. 

Even a motion picture, a life-picture, while real, is 
not alive. But a motion picture is more nearly alive 
than an image in the mirror. 

So, as we ascend the scale of nature, even to man, 
the "image of the Spirit" grows more nearly alive and 
we say it is alive — we are alive — "I know it." 

[49] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



As far a shuman senses can perceive, the body is 
alive. So we might as well stop with that thought 
and say that Matter is alive, Nature is alive, body is 
alive, mind is alive. But our Spiritual senses will 
some day perceive that only Spirit is really and actu- 
ally alive. 

This discussion may seem apart from the thought 
we are developing; that even destruction is the result 
of creativeness, but it leads us to that truth itself ; 
that efficiency unless vitalized by Spirit leads to error, 
wrong, selfishness, cruelty, sin, sorrow and death — 
the whole catalog of negatives. 

Do we not see that German efficiency, devitalized of 
Spirit, as it is, has led to war, cruelty, bloodshed, 
horror, death? And do we not see also that efficiency 
vitalized with Spirit will triumph in the end — as 
Truth triumphs over error, Right over wrong, Love 
over hate, Sympathy over cruelty, Charity over greed, 
Peace over war, Health over sickness, Joy over sor- 
row, Good over evil, Life over death? 

The Allies have the true Spirit, but they have 
lacked efficiency. The Germans have efficiency, but 
they lack the Spirit. 

Once we link efficiency and Spirit together — the 
efficient human individual with all-originating Spirit — 
all is well. 

We realize, therefore, why it is necessary to revise 
the chart of efficiency in terms of true Spirit. 

Study carefully this new chart — this Chart of Cre- 



[So] 



REPLACING EFFICIENCY WITH CREATIVENESS 

ative Living. Compare it with the old chart of effi- 
ciency. Ponder well the changes — the additions. 
Contemplate the Spirit, and we will realize true posi- 
tive, active living, all-powerful creativeness. 

In the first place I have changed the word "your" 
to "our." I have realized the oneness of Being. All 
men are one in Spirit. We must live together, work 
together, think together. We must speak not of your 
duty, but of oar duty ; not of your rights or my rights, 
but of our rights; not of your riches or my riches, 
but of our riches; not of your shortcomings or my 
shortcomings, but of our shortcomings; not of your 
work or my work, but of our work; not of your life 
or of my life; but of our lives. 

In the second place I have added Spirit. Thus I 
have realized that Spirit is in all, of all, the all. I 
have affirmed the Spirit. 

I have added the Spiritual to the physical and the 
mental. I have added soul to body and mind, and 
Spirit to these three. I have added Truth and Love 
and Order — "order is heaven's first law." I have 
added sympathy, gentleness, honesty, fortitude, sin- 
cerity. I have added the sense of humor. I have 
added intuition — the indwelling of the Spirit. I have 
added reverence and worship. 

And above all I have added being to the classifica- 
tion living. Efficiency helps us to live here on earth, 
but creativeness helps us to BE — here and hereafter. 
Living, as we interpret the term here on earth, is 

[51] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



largely physical. Being is spiritual. What we 
ARE — here and hereafter — is more important than 
what we do or how we live. Of course, we become 
— our character develops — according to the way we 
live. Living and being are so interwoven that they 
really become one. Living results in being, and true 
being results in everlasting life. 

With these additions and corrections of terms — 
all included in Spirit — we are now ready to consider, 
step by step, the qualities of true Creativeness. Each 
quality will be discussed separately in a chapter of its 
own, but all will flow naturally together as coming 
from the Spirit — from God. 

No attempt will be made to give a complete analysis 
of these qualities of Creativeness, for that would 
require an entire book for each one. Only enough of 
each will be presented to show its place in the general 
plan of Creative Life. 



[5*1 



CHAPTER VII 

THE QUALITIES OF CREATIVE LIVING 



Health 

HEALTH, wholth, whole, normal. Health, be- 
ing wholesomeness, — the whole — must neces- 
sarily include the whole of man, which is 
body, mind and soul. 

Man being the reflection or projection of God, the 
whole man must include also the Spirit. The Spirit is 
always whole. The soul — the real man — being the 
reflection of the Spirit, is also whole. 

There remain, then, the body and the mind, which, 
in sickness are not whole. Most people believe that 
only the body gets sick. The truth is that the mind 
gets sick first, and mind acting on body makes the 
body sick. 

Mind acting on body, with the aid of Spirit, also 
makes a sick body well. Spirit alone heals, but Spirit 
operates in man only through his mind. 

In analyzing health we must remember that Uni- 



[53] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



versal Spirit cannot proceed in its individual mani- 
festation further than race, except by exercise of the 
conscious selection and initiative on the part of the 
individual. Automatically, Creation keeps the race 
as a race in health, but man as an individual must 
keep himself in health. "So careful of the type," 
runs the old saying, "so careless of the individual, is 
Nature." 

Now, mind is made up of three parts; intellect 
(thinking power), emotions, (feeling power), and 
will (acting power). The intellect shows us what 
health is — that health is wholeness, and that because 
it is wholeness it is good and true — the true state of 
being. Our feelings, feeling that health is good, send 
out a strong desire for health. Our will, then, wills 
that we be in health. This is the way health is 
"reasoned out," or rather "reasoned into" the body. 

More often health is reasoned out than reasoned in 
by thinking about it individually. Most people think 
too much about health. In thinking of health they 
necessarily think of sickness — fear sickness; and by 
thinking sickness they think themselves out of health. 

When I was taken ill I seemed to be in perfect health. 
"I never felt better in my life" I continually told 
people when they commented on my healthful appear- 
ance. How I could suddenly be stricken down I could 
not understand. 

Now I understand that thought made me ill — too 
much thought of health. For a year or more I was 



f54] 



HEALTH 



constantly thinking of my health. I was watching 
my diet closely, noticing the effect on my body. I 
was experimenting. One day I would diet — eat very 
little. The next day I would have a vegetable lunch- 
eon. The third day I would, perhaps, almost starve 
myself at noon. And then, very hungry, I would eat 
a big dinner at night. 

I talked diet and hygiene. I talked calories. I 
thought constantly of these things. What happened? 
Why the natural thing, of course, the natural effect 
of such a cause. I began to think sickness (against 
which I was guarding). I began to fear sickness. 
And fear, manifesting itself in the form of appendi- 
citis, struck me down. 

Our thoughts keep us in health, but they are not 
thoughts of health that accomplish this, but thoughts 
of life, thoughts of love, thoughts of truth, thoughts 
of beauty, thoughts of Spirit. 

Faith — the affirmative, the positive — faith that "all 
is well with the world," backed up by our living this 
faith — keeps us in health. Fear — the denial of faith, 
the negative — causes us to be sick. 

Fear that food will make us sick, makes us sick. 
Faith that food will nourish us, nourishes us. 

I have seen people eat lobster and ice-cream, sup- 
posed to be a semi-poisonous combination, and because 
they feared this combination would make them sick, it 
did make them sick. I have seen other people eat lob- 
ster and ice cream and enjoy it immensely without the 



[551 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



least ill effect, because they did not fear, they had 
faith that both foods taken together would easily di- 
gest. 

No matter what we eat we should always believe 
that it is going to be easily digested. If we cannot think 
this about food, then think not at all about it, think of 
other things — good things — and digestion will take 
care of itself. 

I never realized what health is until I lost it. I un- 
derstood only then that it is the power of mind over 
body, of Spirit over matter. 

Matter is governed by the law of gravity, the force 
that pulls everything down to earth. And I surely was 
"pulled down" in my illness. My body lost its elas- 
ticity. For weeks I lay on my back — and I lay hard — 
so hard that my whole body seemed to be crushing 
through my backbone — that poor back-bone! When 
I could sit up I sat just as hard as I had lain — my body 
seemed to be crushing through the chair. When I 
began to stand and to walk — learning again as a child 
learns — I stood hard; my head seemed to be crushing 
through my shoulders, my shoulders through my hips, 
my hips through my knees, my knees through my 
feet. 

I was face to face with the law of gravity — the 
law that pulls down even unto death. I said then 
that health is muscular, it is elasticity, it is levitation — 
the opposite of gravitation — life seeking to be free 
from physical bondage. And many people hold this 



[56] 



HEALTH 

view — get our muscles into healthful condition, and 
they will keep the whole body healthful. 

But what makes muscles healthful? I discovered 
for myself what makes muscles healthful. It is cir- 
culation of the blood. As I first put my foot on the 
floor, when convalescing, a thousand needles shot 
through it — the blood again trying to get through the 
smaller blood vessels. The same sensation was in my 
knees and shoulders and arms. And so, Osteopathy 
says circulation is the basis of health — keep the blood 
in circulation and the skeleton work of the body (the 
machinery) in order, and nature cures and keeps us 
in health. 

In regaining Health we come back always to Na- 
ture. First, the mineral kingdom — <lead weight, the 
law of gravity. Second, the vegetable kingdom — life 
coursing through the body— simple, still life. Third, 
the animal kingdom — muscular life, active life — the 
circulation of the blood and of life. Fourth, the hu- 
man kingdom — the plane of mind and of Spirit. 

It was mind and Spirit that brought me back to 
health. I went through the physical stages — opera- 
tion, removal of the physical cause (appendix and ab- 
scess), building up of the weakened body by means of 
proper food, fresh air, careful nursing, sanitary con- 
ditions, etc., but it was Mind and Spirit that brought 
me through. 

There was another patient in the hospital, afflicted 
exactly as I was. He had the same operation. But 

[57] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



this other patient became impatient. He fretted. He 
worried. He feared. He looked for more trouble. 
And the trouble came. Complications ensued. An- 
other operation was necessary. 

I recovered normally through Faith. The other 
patient was set back abnormally through fear. 
/Nature's laws are founded on the law of the Spirit 
— which is truth. Man's sanitary, hygienic and other 
safeguarding laws of health and life are based on 
Nature's laws, as man understands them. These 
human laws of health represent the composite wisdom 
of man up to the present period of his evolution. They 
have in them as much pure Spirit as the average man 
can understand. 

Man grows through the physical into the mental, 
then through the mental into the Spiritual. Short cuts 
to the Spirit may be found and taken by those who 
have understanding, but most of us must journey 
through the body, through sickness, and suffering, sin 
and sorrow, through death — to the Resurrection. 

When they include the Spirit, human health laws 
are good for man (in the flesh) to follow. Human 
sanitary and hygienic laws are good. Human dietetic 
laws are good. The science and practise of medicine 
are good. Surgery is good. 

If we have become so spiritualized as to be above 
these human helps (and many people are, at least 
at times), we do well to banish them and use only 
pure Spirit. If we are still so tightly tied to the 



[58] 



HEALTH 

physical plane that we cannot understand the Spirit, 
cannot affirm the all-power, the all-love, the all-good- 
ness, the all-wisdom, the all-helpfulness of the Spirit, 
then we must depend, for the time, upon human agen- 
cies to keep us in health. 

My own experience is that the average man gets 
flashes of the Spirit, and during the period that he 
thus fully realizes the "Power Within" he can keep 
himself in perfect health, can cure diseases. But 
these Spiritual flashes pass. The physical takes pos- 
session of us again. We then must rely on physical 
laws until we live again within Spiritual laws. 



[39] 



CHAPTER VIII 



SOME RULES OF HEALTH 



SOME years ago, in attempting to formulate the 
laws of Health so that they might be understood 
by the younger people of business, I wrote what 
follows in this chapter. I had not then the same reali- 
zation of Spirit as I have now, but as this book is a 
story of my own development (that of an average boy 
and man) I reproduce here what I then wrote about 
Health, and will follow with a paragraph on Spirit 
in Health. 

Strength comes from Health. Health comes from 
right living. Right living is merely living in harmony 
with Nature. The laws of Health are: — nourish the 
body, but do not overfeed it. Exercise the body, but 
give it proper rest to recreate. Cleanse the body, 
within and without. Do not abuse the body. Breathe 
deeply of pure fresh air. Think good thoughts. 

Nature intends every boy and girl, every man and 
woman, to be strong physically. When we are not 
strong, either we are disobeying the laws of Nature, 
or our ancestors have disobeyed them and we have 



ffiol 



SOME RULES OF HEALTH 



inherited weak bodies. But in most instances even a 
weak body can be made strong by right living. 

Let us see what Nature asks us to do to become 
strong. To learn this we must get as close to Nature 
as possible. The wild lion is strong because he lives 
according to the laws of Nature. His instinct tells 
him how to live. The lion in captivity loses some of 
this strength. The wild horse is stronger than the 
domesticated horse. When we begin to domesticate 
any wild animal it becomes subject to disease and 
soon loses its strength. The wild oxen that race up 
and down the wind-swept plains are never sick. But 
domesticated cattle frequently have tuberculosis. Wild 
birds are rarely ill. Birds in captivity must be watched 
constantly, kept out of draughts, given proper food, 
or they soon sicken and die. 

The lesson is this : live according to the laws of Na- 
ture and we keep well and strong; live contrary to 
any of these laws and we sicken and grow weak. 

To learn these laws of Nature we should study the 
habits of a wild animal that lives close to Nature. In 
the first place, he eats only when he is hungry — and 
he rarely over-eats. He drinks when he is thirsty — 
and he never drinks anything but water. He sleeps in 
the open air — goes to sleep when the sun sets and gets 
awake when it rises. He takes exercise. He rests. 
Instinct tells him what to do, how to do it, when to 
do it — and he does it. 

If man lived in a state of Nature, his instinct would 



[61] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



tell him how to live according to the laws of Nature. 
But with the refinements of civilization have come 
many abuses, and as man is a free agent, having the 
power of choice, his instinct is no longer a guide; he 
must learn (through his mind) the laws of Nature and 
(through his will) must obey them. 

Adapting to man the laws of Health as we find 
them in the wild animal, we may lay down these 
rules — 

1. Breathe right. Live in the open as much as pos- 
sible. Open the windows in your sleeping-room. 
Breathe fresh, pure air always, and take deep, long 
breaths. Few people use all of their lungs — they fill 
only half of their air-cells. This brings on tubercu- 
losis. The purpose of breathing is to take in oxygen 
to purify the blood. Air is the most valuable thing 
in the world, yet we value it the least. We can live 
for days without anything else, without even food 
or water, but we can't live even a few minutes with- 
out air. The more pure air we breathe into our lungs 
the more blood we purify, and pure blood is the river 
of life. 

2. Eat and drink right Eat only food that nour- 
ishes the body and eat only enough to keep well and 
strong. Nearly every one over-eats and under- 
breathes. If we under-ate and over-breathed we would 
be better off. We should leave the dining-table still 
hungry. Whenever you feel that you want "just 
another piece" call a halt. Avoid rich foods. Eat 



[62] 



SOME RULES OF HEALTH 



little pastry. Drink only water — and plenty of it; 
remember the strength of the lion which drinks noth- 
ing but water. If we never drink coffee, or tea, or 
liquor, we will never feel the need of stimulants. 

3. Work right; rest right; play right. If you work 
with your hands all day long — do physical labor — you 
will want to rest your body in the evening, and your 
play and recreation will then be mental. Read or 
hear a good lecture, see a good motion picture, listen 
to some good music, or have a good talk with some 
one who knows more than you-— we learn by associ- 
ating with people who are our mental superiors. 

If your labor has been mental — if you have been 
sitting at a desk all day — your play and rest should 
be physical. Take exercise. Play ball or tennis or 
golf, or ride horse-back, or chop wood, or dig a 
garden. Do anything that will exercise your body 
and keep you in the open air. 

Many great men who worked all day mentally 
formed the habit of doing physical labor as rest. 
President James Madison had a cabinet shop where 
he would make tables and chairs when he became 
mind-weary. Gladstone, to rest his brain and exercise 
his body, would go out into the woods and chop down 
trees. 

Rest and play go together. Rest does not come 
only from sleep. Sleep is rest, but so is play. Any 
change of occupation is rest. 

Playing right is the same as exercising right. All 



[63] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



exercise is play — is recreation — if properly taken. 
Those who have not time for outdoor sports should 
take systematic exercise in their own homes when 
they arise in the morning. Ten minutes is enough time 
for this, if the exercise is taken every day. 

4. Keep the body clean and pure — inside and out. 
Bathe every morning when you get up — in water the 
same temperature as the air in the room. Some 
people get good results from cold baths, but not 
every one can stand a cold bath. Cold air in your 
sleeping-room and a cold bath are both tonics — very- 
good, indeed, if your system is accustomed to them. 

5. Do not abuse the body — with over-eating, over- 
drinking, over- work, over-rest (laziness) or excesses 
of any kind. The best guide is your feelings. If you 
feel well and strong and in good spirits, you are 
taking proper care of your body. If you feel sick and 
tired and sleepy and weak or out of sorts generally, 
take strict note at once of your manner of living, for 
you are doing something you ought not to do or you 
are failing to do something you ought to do. A few 
minutes' thought about your mode of life will usually 
tell you what is wrong. If your own inspection will not 
tell you, consult a good physician who will put you 
on the right track again. 

6. Don't zvorry; don't fear; have faith; think good 
and cheerful thoughts. 

The mind has great power over the body. Thought 
has great influence on health and strength. It is 



[64] 



SOME RULES OF HEALTH 



absolutely true that to keep well and strong we must 
think good, pure, cheerful thoughts, and we must 
banish from our minds all worry and fear. 

Fear is the highway robber that waits for us 
'round the corner and sandbags us into inaction. 
Worry is the second-story thief that steals away our 
brains and strength and health and will power. 

If we are strong physically, mentally and morally, 
there will be no room for fear or worry in our 
thoughts. We will then have faith — faith in our- 
selves, faith in our fellow-beings, faith in the work 
we are doing, and faith that law rules the Universe 
and that we will keep well and strong and become 
successful if we but live in accord with natural laws. 
If we obey Nature's laws first, we need never worry 
about human laws. 

7. Sleep the sleep of Health, What is this sort 
of sleep? Well, it is not fitful sleep; not sleep with 
bad dreams ; nor is it too much sleep. It is the sleep 
that tired Nature demands and takes if you but give 
her the opportunity. 

Fitful sleep comes from either worry, fear, an 
excited mental state, too much exercise, over-eating, 
over-drinking, or bad ventilation. Sleep with bad 
dreams comes from either overloading the stomach or 
from having disobeyed some other of Nature's laws, or 
from high mental excitement. Too much sleep comes 
from laziness — and begets laziness. 

The right sort of sleep is the kind that you don't 



[65] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



know you are taking. You just "drop off to sleep" 
about 10 o'clock at night and wake fully refreshed 
about 6 or 7 in the morning, not knowing how the 
miracle of the re-creating of the body and mind has 
been accomplished. This is the sleep of the healthful 
and the strong, who do each day's duties by day and 
rest peacefully by night. Sleep is the time when the 
waste tissues of the body, thrown off in the wear and 
tear of the day, are renewed and built up again with 
new life and vigor. Sleep, therefore, of the right 
kind, is absolutely necessary to health and strength. 

One more rule I would now add to these laws of 
Health — St. Paul's injunction: — 

8. "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- 
ever things are of good report; if there be any virtue 
and if there be any praise, think on these things 
. . . and the God of peace shall be with you." 
Think not less of health. Think more of Spirit. 
Think of Spirit in terms of its qualities which abound 
in every day living. 

Do not less, but do more. Know not less, but 
know more. Grow not less, but grow more. Live 
not less, but live more. Be not less, but be more. 
And live and be the Spirit. 



I came here, where I am writing, to regain health. I 
[66] 



SOME RULES OF HEALTH 



am in a health resort. Am I careful of my health? 
No. I am thoughtless of it. I am paying no atten- 
tion to health rules or laws, systems or methods. I 
am working— mentally — five and six hours a day. I 
am thinking of the things I am writing. Those 
things, I believe, are true, are beautiful, are good. 
And in these thoughts and through these thoughts 
I am regaining my health and strength. 

I am living in the Spirit and the Spirit is again 
living in me. 



m 



CHAPTER IX 



ENERGY 



WE were standing by a railroad — I and my boy, 
who has a mechanical turn of mind and who 
is attracted to machinery as iron to a magnet. 
We had been looking at one of the giant locomotives — 
a double coupled engine, with eight cylinders, eight 
drivers, two engines in one ; lighted with electricity, 
operated by compressed air (even the bell), and me- 
chanically stoked. As it moved on, pulling after it up 
the mountain seventy-six full laden steel coal cars, and 
the roaring noise had ceased, I exclaimed — "To think 
that all that weight is pulled by a little water changed 
into steam, the steam that idly swirls out of a tea 
kettle r 

"Well, Dad," my boy said, "more wonderful than 
that is to see what electricity is doing — and you can't 
even see electricity." And he went on to tell me that 
electric engines are more powerful than these huge 
steam engines, pulling hundreds of cars over the 
mountains without snorting or groaning or making 
any fuss whatever. 



[68] 



ENERGY 



If electricity — an unseen force — can do this, I 
thought to myself, it is not hard to believe that Spirit, 
another unseen force, can move mountains, can sup- 
port the universe, can do anything. 

Primary energy, is, of course, primary Spirit. 
Energy, as we know it, is physical, mental and Spiri- 
tual force. 

Physical energy in man proceeds from physical 
health. Mental energy proceeds from mental health- 
good thoughts. Spiritual energy proceeds from good 
health and good thoughts allowing the divine energy 
of Spirit to flow through man. 

Man is only a distributor, not the creator, we have 
seen. To be a distributor, man must have something 
to distribute. That something is LIFE — divine life 
or Spirit — health, wholth, his whole self, energy. Call 
it divine energy and we begin to sense its meaning. 
Energy is divine. 

Human energy includes man's physical, mental and 
Spiritual power. Energy is heavenly steam in the 
boilers. It is heavenly lightning in the dynamo. Man's 
energy is the Spiritual electric current within. It 
is the surging of the blood through our arteries. It is 
the longing of the soul to do, to know, to grow, to 
live, to give itself expression — to be. 

Energy is both latent and active. Energy in the 
locomotive's boiler accomplishes nothing until liber- 
ated. Man — the engineer — opens the throttle, liber- 
ates the steam, and the huge train moves. 



[69] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Man is the liberator and distributor of divine en- 
ergy. Man is also the controller and the director of 
this all-powerful energy. 

Powerful energy is dangerous unless well-distrib- 
uted and well-controlled. The locomotive is "under 
steam," we say. It may be so full of energy that it 
"blows of!" — the safety valve opens. If the safety 
valve does not open the locomotive "blows up," and 
destruction follows. If the steam is controlled, and 
directed into the cylinders, it becomes constructive 
and moves the train. The engineer is the controller, 
the director and the distributor of the locomotive's 
energy. 

What part of man is the engineer? The engineer 
in man is the UNDERSTANDING. 

So, understanding, is the next quality of creative- 
ness in the individual that we shall consider. Under- 
standing must come before activity, if our active 
energy is to be well-directed, well-controlled and well- 
distributed. 



\7o] 



CHAPTER X 



UNDERSTANDING 



OVER the gate at the entrance to the campus 
of the University of Virginia, at Charlottes- 
ville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, 
is inscribed this quotation from Proverbs: "Through 
wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it 
is established ; and by knowledge shall the chambers be 
filled with all precious and pleasant riches." 

Understanding comes from the truly knowing and 
logical thinking power of man. It results from per- 
ception, comprehension, reason, judgment, skill, 
(theory in practise). It is more than knowledge, more 
than intelligence, more than intellect, more than wis- 
dom. It is Spiritualized good sense. It is Spirit, it- 
self, the recognition, comprehension and affirmation of 
the Spirit. 

Understanding is what makes man more than brute. 
We see a big strong horse pulling a load along the 
street. The horse is a fine specimen of physical de- 
velopment. But he represents only brute strength, 
physical energy. Note the reins that go to the horse's 



[71] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



mouth. They represent the intellect, the understand- 
ing of man, that controls and guides the brute strength. 
Unless we want to be driven and directed in our 
labors through life, like the poor dumb (but strong) 
horse, unless we want to have reins on our head and 
a bit in our mouth, and have some other man drive 
and, it may be, cruelly whip us on, why, then, if we 
would avoid this, we must develop our MINDS as we 
develop our bodies. We must make our minds big 
and strong. For our mind — the power of thought — 
is what lifts us above the level of the dumb animal. 

Mind is located in the physical brain. Just what 
the intellect is and how it works we do not know. 
Whether the size of the brain, the shape, or the color, 
makes the mind strong matters little. The important 
point is; mind can be developed, strengthened, en- 
larged. And there is great hope in this. For accident 
of birth or of our surroundings (environment) counts 
for little when a Lincoln can become President of 
the United States, a Franklin can develop one of the 
best all-around intellects of any age, or a boy like 
Stephen Girard, thrown upon his own resources in a 
foreign country at the age of 14, can amass a million 
dollars honestly. 

Every healthful child has a sound brain and mind 
and intellect (call it by either name) that with proper 
personal effort can be developed into a great 
THOUGHT-FACTORY— and Thought rules the 
world. 



[72] 



UNDERSTANDING 



Where do thoughts come from? Apparently out 
of the air — out of the Nowhere into Here. 

Yes, thought comes out of the air, as electricity 
comes out of the air. Thought also comes from 
within — from the Spirit within man. 

The thoughts that come to us "out of the air" 
come to us through five gates — through our five 
physical senses — seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and 
smelling. 

The sense of SIGHT is the widest gate of the five. 
Through this gate comes the greater part of outward 
human knowledge. The blind man is the hardest 
stricken of all cripples, and yet even a blind man can 
become Senator of the United States — as Senator 
Gore has become. This proves not that sight is un- 
necessary to success, but that the other four senses — 
the other four gates — are wide open, too, to let in 
useful knowledge. 

Through the sense of Sight we observe, we learn 
Nature, we study books, we get sensations and form 
images in our minds — IMAGES, which are the physi- 
cal beginning of thoughts, leading on to concepts, 
ideas, laws and principles. 

In the same way, the gate of HEARING admits 
much useful knowledge : and the gates of TOUCH, 
of SMELL and of TASTE. All these gates must be 
kept open if we would develop our minds to the 
utmost. And these physical senses must be sharpened, 
developed and strengthened. 



[73] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Do we realize that we can train our power of 
observation through the eyes? Try the simple game 
of having an "Observation Party. ,, Place two dozen 
different articles on the table. Let each guest observe 
them for a minute or two and then have each person 
go into an adjoining room and write down on a slip 
of paper what was on the table. You will be surprised 
to find how few things we really SEE until we begin 
to train our sense of sight, our power of observation. 

Similar tests may be made of our senses of hearing, 
of smell, of taste, of touch — showing that they also 
may be trained and strengthened and developed. 

This "sensing" of things — taking in knowledge 
through the gateways of our senses — is one part of 
education. It is the gathering of the merchandise. It 
is the harvesting of the crops. Now, when we have 
our store-house or granary (our brain) packed 
pretty full — it is never absolutely full — there is 
always room there for more knowledge! — we must 
arrange our knowledge (like sorting goods) so that 
we can use it when we wish. Some brains are filled 
with knowledge, but it is disorganized, like some 
badly kept stocks of merchandise, and the owner never 
can find the right information when he wants it. 
Knowledge is good only when it is organized. And 
so organized knowledge is called Wisdom. 

Information that we take in through our physical 
senses is useful only when we can remember it — that 
is true, isn't it? So, while training our physical senses 



[74] 



UNDERSTANDING 



to become acute we must also train our MEMORY. 

Why do we remember some things and forget 
others? Simply because we were interested in the 
thing we remembered and not interested in the thing 
we forgot. When we are interested in a thing we 
give it our attention — we concentrate our mind upon 
it. So that ATTENTION and CONCENTRATION 
form the secret of remembering. 

Attention is merely fixing our minds intently on a 
thing. Concentration is simply prolonged attention. 
When we give strict attention to something we are 
reading and concentrate our minds upon it, pushing 
out of the mind all other thoughts, we will pack away 
in our storehouse the knowledge we are thus acquir- 
ing, and we can recall it at any time. Better to read 
little, but read that little attentively, than to read much 
slovenly, without concentration, skipping over it in a 
lazy sort of fashion. Reading newspapers and noth- 
ing else harms the memory, because we do not expect 
to remember much of what we read in the newspaper 
— it isn't worth remembering. But reading good 
books is an aid to memory, because we feel the 
importance and advantage of what we are reading — 
we are stocking our minds with useful knowledge and 
we wish to remember it. 

Good health is also an aid to memory. A strong, 
healthful boy or girl will remember more than a weak 
and sickly child. 

Now, after we have taken into our minds, through 

[75] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



our senses, this useful information, and packed it away 
so that our memory can recall it, when wanted — what 
are we going to do with it? Are we simply going to 
remember that a horse is big and has four legs be- 
cause our sight told us this and our memory now 
reminds us of the fact? No, we wouldn't get very 
far in life if this were all we did with the knowledge 
we acquire and remember. We must take one more 
step — and that is, set our IMAGINATION at work. 

Imagination builds air-castles, yes, and builds in our 
minds all sorts of fantastic figures, but the imagina- 
tion we are talking about is constructive imagination — 
the union of thoughts into ideas and judgments, and 
laws and principles. This kind of imagination is the 
architect of the mind. 

Instead of merely remembering that the horse is 
big and has four legs, imagine, please, what would 
happen if he would use those four legs as you use 
your two legs — he could probably run faster, couldn't 
he? And if he is strong he might carry you on his 
back — don't you think so? Well, there you have 
arrived at an IDEA — and you jump on the horse's 
back, say "get up!" and away you go. You have 
discovered a new aid to man — the beast of burden* 
that relieves us of much of our work. 

Suppose we are dusting off the stock on a counter 
in a store and hear a customer ask for a certain kind 
of goods that we know is in the stockroom (because 
we saw it there a few minuts ago and remembered 



[76] 



UNDERSTANDING 



that we saw it). But the clerk says; "no, madam, I 
am sorry, we haven't that in stock." Are we content 
with just remembering? No; we set our imagination 
at work and say to ourselves: "If I don't tell about 
these goods, the store will lose a sale and the cus- 
tomer will be dissatisfied." We walk up to the clerk 
and say: "The goods wanted are up in the stock- 
room; I will go and get them." 

We rarely think without using our imagination, so 
that we see how important is this part of the mind. 
By constructive imagination is meant that which builds 
up useful ideas, not the dreamy, harum-scarum false 
imagination that an insane or drunken person has. 

By using the imagination and by uniting thoughts 
and ideas we REASON and form JUDGMENTS. 
Sound judgment is one of the greatest assets in 
business. 

To form sound judgment we must first have all the 
facts. We must weigh these facts and compare them. 
We must free our minds of all prejudice. Then, after 
taking enough time to consider, we will form a sound 
judgment. 

Bad judgments are only of three kinds: I — hasty 
judgment (when we do not take enough time) ; 2 — 
mistaken judgment (when we do not have all facts 
in the case — do not see all sides of the subject — or 
when our physical senses are defective) ; 3 — preju- 
diced judgment (when we become biased, one way 
or another, through our feelings). 



[77] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Good judgment, of course, comes from experience. 
But experience, we have seen, comes from the taking 
in of knowledge through the senses and remember- 
ing that knowledge. So that boys and girls who 
train the senses and train the memory will gain expe- 
rience faster than those who do not train the senses 
or memory. In this way we grow experienced, even 
while yet young in years. And experienced men and 
women, with good judgment and imagination, always 
command good places in business, whether they are 
young or old in years. 

Thinking, remembering, imagining — these are the 
faculties of the mind we use every day in life. When 
we develop these, we do things "with all our minds." 
We must observe, we must give strict attention to 
what is going on around us, we must study books 
and things and people, giving close attention to what 
we are doing. In this way we take in useful knowl- 
edge through our physical senses. Then, by remem- 
bering that knowledge, and by thinking, reflecting and 
imagining, we create ideas of our own and grow in 
wisdom. 

I have developed here, in a brief way, the whole 
evolution of thought which leads to understanding — 
through material perception, memory, reason, imag- 
ination, judgment and wisdom, because only by con- 
sidering all these things can we get a grasp on 
understanding. But each will be considered further, 



[78] 



UNDERSTANDING 



under separate chapters, in our analysis of Creative- 
ness in the individual. 

Spiritual understanding — intuition, we often call it 
— is also analyzed in a later chapter. 

All knowledge does not come from without. True 
knowledge comes also from within — from the inner 
or Spiritual contemplation of material things, from 
contemplation of Spirit, itself. 

God is all-wisdom, all-understanding. Nature is 
the manifestation of God. We learn to know God 
through knowing Nature. We learn to know God still 
more by understanding God, Himself. Only as we un- 
derstand God, affirm God, reflect God, live God, do we 
reach that Spiritual understanding which is all in all. 

We do well to study nature. But we do better to 
study God. 



[79] 



CHAPTER XI 



ACTION 



WE have now proceeded far enough in our an- 
alysis of creative living to comprehend what 
health is, why health is, and how health is. 
We realize that from health energy naturally fol- 
lows. That physical energy is brute power, when un- 
controlled — the horse — but that directed it becomes 
usable horse power. That "horse power" when multi- 
plied by the hundreds and thousands in the steam loco- 
motive and electric dynamo becomes man power, be- 
cause man controls it. That energy can be either con- 
structive or destructive ; that it is constructive, that it 
builds, only when controlled by the understanding. 

But even with health, energy and understanding man 
is not man until he puts these forces into action. How 
can man be a man — a distributor — unless he distributes 
the power within? 

So, the next step in our analysis of the Creative 
Power is ACTION. 
I Action is the will in command ; willingness to do and 

[8oj 



ACTION 



the actual doing; the body, mind, soul and spirit in 
action ; active energy ; diligence. 

With this understanding we can open wide the 
throttle of the Higher Power Within. We know it is 
all-power because it includes all-health and all-energy. 
We know it is all-wisdom because it is guided by all- 
understanding. We know it is all-truth, all-love, all- 
beauty, because the Power Within is Spirit. So — let 
*er go — we are going in the right direction — construc- 
tively and not destructively ; up, not down. 

God in action ! What a dynamic thought ! The Uni- 
verse is created over again. Worlds are made. Every- 
thing is possible. 

With God I command the earth, the sea, the air. I 
conquer the earth; I am the pioneer. I conquer the 
sea; I am the navigator and explorer. I conquer the 
air ; I fly in my airplane with the birds. 

I am the manifestation of God, created in His image 
and working in His way. But — have a care — am T, the 
man in action, God's man? Am I distributing the 
Spirit or am I distributing only material and mental 
force ? 

If I am taking God into my work, into my life, into 
my actions, I am working with truth, with right, with 
love, with wisdom, with beauty, for these are the attri- 
butes of the Power Within. 

God's man in action ! At work ! Industrious ! Cre- 
ating ! Doing good in the world S Helping his fellow 
men! Even fighting for the right, as the Allies are 

[81] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



fighting in the Great War. Such a man is sublime! 

Get into action, but get into action with God. Use 
our health, our energy, our understanding, but use 
these powers for the happiness of mankind. 

We often say "the flesh in silling, but the spirit is 
weak." We are lazy. We are inert. We take life 
easy. We have health and strength, energy and knowl- 
edge, but we don't get into action. The spirit is weak. 
Exactly! The Spirit is not called upon. And right 
here comes into play our wills. 

Remember what Troward says — "that the Spirit can- 
not proceed further in its manifestation in the indi- 
vidual until the individual selects and takes the initi- 
ative" The human understanding selects, and the 
human will elects to take the initiative. Our will then 
opens the door of the real man to the real Spirit. It 
opens our bodies to health. It opens our minds to 
true understanding. It opens our hearts to conscience 
and divine guidance. 

The Will is Boss. The will is I. I do what I will 
to do, I refuse to do what I will not to do. The will 
opens the door to positive actions — good; and closes 
it against negative actions — evil. 

The will may be trained in either direction. Men 
become devils (evils) by the exercise of their strong 
wills negatively. Men become angels by the exercise 
of their strong wills positively. 

The will may be trained through exercise. Train 
the will by doing the right, by living the truth, by 



[82] 



ACTION 



acting with charity towards our neighbors. Begin 
with the simple things of life. When we go to turn 
over in bed in the morning, as the alarm clock rings, 
say, "No, I will not go to sleep again," (shutting out 
the negative) "I will get up" (letting in the positive) 
— and we get up at once. 

Force ourselves to get to work on time. Force our- 
selves to walk and take exercise when we need it. 
Force ourselves to do even disagreeable things, if they 
are the right things to do. Deny ourselves luxuries — 
put the money in the bank for future need. Give — in 
charity — until it hurts. 

Through exercise in the right direction the will be- 
comes stronger each day. We get more into action, 
more into life, we live more. And the healthful, ener- 
getic, wise longing of man is to live more; to enter more 
into the fullness of life; to give free and full manifes- 
tation to the Power Within him — the Spirit. 

Get into action, with body, mind, soul and spirit. Do 
more. Know more. Grow more. Be more and live 
more — the "will to live" triumphs even over death. 



[83] 



CHAPTER XII 



ENDURANCE 



ACTION, as we see it in man, is too often tem- 
porary. "He is a man of action," we say. He 
bustles around, busies himself with things, is 
always doing something. One day he disappears from 
our view. We hear he is ill. Such a man lacks en- 
durance. 

Endurance is conservation of action — doing enough, 
but no more ; resting when action is unnecessary ; con- 
serving health and energy. 

Endurance is stamina, backbone, constructive indus- 
try, bearing with patience — fortitude ; unyielding ; hold- 
ing the fort ; lasting quality. 

True endurance is of the Spirit — Spiritual as well 
as physical and mental. The material does not en- 
dure. Even the mountains crumble. I am sitting in a 
building erected entirely of mountain boulders, con- 
crete and tile. The structure looks as though it would 
endure forever. But some day this building will 
crumble. I know this because I have been up on the 



[84; 



ENDURANCE 



mountains where the building-boulders came from, and 
the rocks there are crumbling, disintegrating. 

Books outlive mountains. The wisdom of the world 
will outlive the world. Truth, love, good, law, beauty, 
wisdom, life, never die. Mind endures beyond matter. 
Spirit endures beyond mind. All is Spirit. 

Remember this when we build. Build solid. Build 
of matter, of substance, but also of intelligence and of 
character. 

Build with truth. Build with wisdom. Build with 
love. Build with beauty. Build with Spirit. Only as 
we build with God will we endure. 



[851 



CHAPTER XIII 



HOSPITALITY 



TO build with God we must also build with man. 
Man cannot live alone. Like the animal he 
has the instinct of the herd. He must asso- 
ciate with his kind. Solitary confinement in jail kills 
men — if not their bodies, then their minds and their 
spirit. Men must live together. They are dependent 
upon one another. They must work together, act to- 
gether, strive together. 

Now, the first principle of association is hospitality. 
Hospitality is based on love. Hospitality is gentleness, 
is kindness, is sympathy, is politeness, courtesy, tact, 
graciousness, charm of manner. "Men exist for one 
another," says Marcus Aurelius, "teach them then, or 
bear with them." 

In business and in life we begin with hospitality, 
with the outpouring of the heart. Cold, selfish, inhos- 
pitable men are never successful in business or in life. 
The world of man likes the sunshine of man — not his 
clouds. 



[86] 



HOSPITALITY 



The sunshiny salesperson gets the orders. The sun- 
shiny manager gets the job higher up. The sunshiny 
worker gets not only more pay, but what is much 
more valuable, he gets the love of his fellow worker. 

A smile opens any door. A warm, vigorous, sympa- 
thetic hand-shake opens any heart. Try the smile and 
the handshake tomorrow, when you go to business. Say 
"good-morning" in a cheery way, as you enter the 
shop. Shake hands with your neighbor worker. The 
day will start with sunshine and end with sunshine. 

Be hospitable, even to the ignorant — he knows not. 
We must give him understanding. "Why, this custard 
is frozen," once said a guest to his hostess as he tasted 
frozen custard for the first time. Not wishing to ex- 
pose his ignorance and hurt his feelings, the hostess 
turned to him with a smile, tasted the custard herself, 
and said with an air of surprise ; "why so it is — frozen ; 
but it is good any way, isn't it?" The guest agreed 
that it was good, and the situation was saved. 

Hospitality is manner — the way we do a thing rather 
than what we do. It is not what we give, but how we 
give. "Hospitality is thoughtfulness of others and for- 
get fulness of self. Hospitality is a great asset in busi- 
ness ; a great unfolder of life. 

Man is the distributor — let us distribute the Spirit 
in a Spiritual way — with kindness, gentleness, cour- 
tesy, sympathy, true hospitality. 



[87] 



CHAPTER XIV 



CAREFULNESS 



NOW, we are in action. We are in action with 
understanding and hospitality. And we keep 
in action because we have endurance. We are 
acting with our fellow men, and we are acting hos- 
pitably. 

But to act with understanding and hospitality is not 
enough. What we call a "good fellow" is not always a 
"good worker." To be a good worker we must act 
with care. 

Carefulness is, therefore, another quality of positive 
creativeness. 

We must distribute with care what is in us — the 
Higher Power. We must distribute with care our 
health, our energy, our endurance, our understanding, 
our labor, our money, our time, our capacity. 

With care! Care is serious attention of mind, the 
state of being mindful, heedful. 

Carefulness — care of truth — is truthfulness, exact- 
ness, accuracy, precision, honesty. 



[881 



CAREFULNESS 

Carefulness — care of time — is celerity, promptness, 
punctuality. 

Carefulness— care of law— is order, orderliness, sys- 
tem. 

More workers founder on the rocks of carelessness 
than on any other negative. More fortunes are lost 
through carelessness and more fortunes gained through 
carefulness than through, perhaps, any other single 
quality. 

Carefulness is recognition that the universe is built 
on law; that if we do something, something else will 
happen ; the law of cause and effect. 

Man cannot change the law of cause and effect. I 
am not careful with a razor and I cut my face. I pay 
with pain. I am not careful in making change. I 
find my cash short at the end of the day. I pay with 
my own money — make good the shortage. I am not 
careful in reading or in filling an order, and I fill it 
in error. The goods come back. I pay in the loss of 
my job. I am not careful in taking medicine. I pay 
with suffering and sorrow. 

We always pay for the lack of care. We always 
gain by being careful— full of care. 

Care comes from thinking of what we are doing; 
from understanding what we are doing; from giving 
our whole mind and body to the "job at hand." 

Sickly people are habitually careless ; they are think- 
ing of their suffering, not of their work. Ignorant 
people are habitually careless ; they do not understand 

[89] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



their work and therefore "do not care." Lazy people 
are habitually careless; they "do not take care about 
their work" because they haven't enough energy "to 
care," their wills do not force them to be interested. 

So, we see that carefulness comes from health, from 
energy, from endurance, from action, from hospitality 
(the care of others), all of which come primarily from 
the Spirit. 

We are late in keeping an appointment. We keep 
other busy men waiting. We are selfish. We say, 
"I don't care, I will make up the time later." But can 
the other men, the men we kept waiting — can they 
make up the lost time and the lost work? 

We ask the office boy to call "So-and-So" on the 
phone. So-and-So gets on the phone, and wastes his 
time until we choose to come and talk with him. That 
is mistaken carefulness — it is care of ourselves, but 
careless of others. It is selfishness. And selfishness 
is not of the Spirit. 

Carefulness is recognition that law rules the Uni- 
verse, that truth is eternal, that love is the motive 
power of life. 

Carefulness of our person is caring for our person — 
keeping the body clean, our boots blacked, our clothes 
in good order. 

The busier the man the more careful he must be. 
His desk is always in order. Usually it has on it only 
a rose and a blotter. No disorderly papers. No 
"messed-up" look about it. The busy man has not time 



f90] 



CAREFULNESS 

to be careless. He realizes that every paper kept on 
his desk longer than necessary keeps some other worker 
from doing his work, and throws the whole organiza- 
tion into disorder. 

Carefulness originates in the mind. A Canadian 
once told me how he happened to bring order out of 
chaos in his life. He was a sheep herder, living alone 
far up in the wilds. The nearest home was ten miles 
distant. He grew very lonely. He grew careless. His 
shack became cluttered up with a little bit of every- 
thing. 

One day this man said to himself ; why am I here, 
all alone, making no progress in life? He looked 
around him — all confusion and chaos. He could hardly 
find a place to sit down. His bunk was covered with 
litter. Why is all this mess here, he said, I am so 
cluttered up I cannot think. 

Think ! Thought ! Thought saved him. He began 
to think. He reasoned this way finally. It's all in my 
mind. The confusion is in my mind. The disorder is 
in my mind. I must "clean up" my mind before I can 
"clean up" my home. But I must "clean up" my home 
before I can "clean up" my mind. Order cannot exist 
in disorder. 

So he "cleaned up" his home — this Canadian; he 
"cleaned up" his mind. He sold his sheep, came to 
town, began to organize his affairs, put care into his 
work and his life. 

To-day this Canadian is a successful business man. 

[9i] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



He found success by realizing the creative power of 
carefulness and the destructive power of carelessness, 
its negative. 



[92] 



CHAPTER XV 



THOROUGHNESS 



BE careful of little things and the big things will 
take care of themselves. Carefulness in little 
things leads to thoroughness in big things. 

Thoroughness is carefulness crystallized into habit. 

Thoroughness is going through to the end ; finishing 
the job ; carrying the message to Garcia ; following up 
and checking up ; planning and systematizing. 

The golfer knows what it means to "go through," 
to finish the stroke. It means the difference between a 
good and a bad shot. 

To begin a thing is not enough ; to finish brings com- 
pletion. Many people "start something." Few finish 
the work. 

It is all right to be a self-starter in life, but it is 
better to be a self -finisher. What we do not finish 
some one else must. That shifts the burden — and the 
reward. Some one else has to look after the part of 
our job we do not finish, and his pay has to come out 
of ours. Or some one has to re-do the part of the job 
we did not do properly. 



[93] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Doubling up work, doubling up duties, doubling up 
responsibility is wasteful. An advertising writer, for 
example, is not thorough in procuring the news of 
merchandise to be advertised. He may get a wrong 
description, a wrong price. He writes the error, and 
then — again "without thoroughness" — sends to the 
printer the "copy" unedited, without proper punctua- 
tion, with misspelt words. The printer "follows copy" 
— perpetuates in type the errors — the lack of thorough- 
ness. The proof goes to the proof reader, who cor- 
rects the errors of grammar and spelling, and to the 
merchandise chief who corrects the errors in descrip- 
tion and price. The proof comes back so badly marked 
with corrections that the whole block of type has to be 
re-set. 

Lack of thoroughness in figuring "costs" of doing 
business shipwrecks many a concern. Lack of thor- 
oughness in "sorting sizes," when purchasing in bulk 
for a retail business, causes either a shortage or an 
overstock of goods — a loss either way; loss of trade 
or loss of money. 

One mistake causes another. A little carelessness 
causes much carelessness. Much carelessness grows 
into a habitual lack of care — into the very opposite of 
thoroughness. And the sheriff closes the business. 

Because workers are not thorough, their bosses have 
to follow up and check up their work. If you want to 
be a boss learn to be thorough. 

Because workers are not thorough, some one — their 



[94] 



THOROUGHNESS 



boss — has to plan and systematize their work. If 
you want to be a boss learn to plan and to systematize. 
"But how can I cultivate thoroughness, how can I 
make it a habit ?" By concentration — which is the next 
quality of Creativeness, to be considered in the next 
chapter. 



[95] 



CHAPTER XVI 



CONCENTRATION 



CONCENTRATION is prolonged attention; 
focusing one's mind and effort on the thing to 
be done. "This one thing I do." 

Most writers say that we concentrate through power 
of the will. That is forced concentration, mechanical 
concentration. 

A better kind of concentration results from becom- 
ing interested in the thing on which we wish to con- 
centrate. 

A school of concentration in New York takes back- 
ward students and teaches them concentration by mak- 
ing play out of their studies. When we "play," as a 
child plays, we are interested. Note the intent ab- 
sorbed look of a child at play — absolute concentration ; 
he sees nothing, knows nothing, lives nothing, but his 
"play." 

When grown-ups get interested in their work as ab- 
sorbingly as children get interested in their play, there 
is no trouble about concentration. 



[96] 



CONCENTRATION 



The secret, then, of concentration is interest. We 
can become interested in any kind of work if we but 
search for the points of interest in that work. 

I have seen workmen in the Ford Automobile fac- 
tory in Detroit doing the same piece of work over and 
over again during the day. In that factory each man 
does but one thing. Yet these workmen were interest- 
ed in their work. Why were they interested? Be- 
cause they were trying to do their work the best they 
could do it — trying to improve with each operation. 

In trying to improve our work we find our inter- 
est. We are always interested in a thing we try to 
do better. It becomes a game, then — play. The game 
is "to beat our own work," no matter how monotonous, 
or menial the work may be. 

Interest leads to concentration and interest comes 
from striving to improve. Here again is the soul's 
striving for self -recognition, for fuller expression of 
life, for complete manifestation of Spirit. 

* * 5jf * * 

We have reached the end of our analysis of the 
qualities of creative doing. We have reasoned more 
or less in circles — making a complete whole — building 
one circle around the other, above the other, showing 
the inter-relation and inter-dependence of all the "do- 
ing" qualities of true Creativeness. 

We began with health; which leads to energy: 
which when directed by understanding leads to action 
and endurance. 



[97] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



In man's association with men, we began with hos- 
pitality, which added to carefulness, interest and con- 
centration leads to thoroughness. 

Thus we produced the physical worker — healthy, 
strong, energetic, active, enduring. 

We produced the mental worker — intelligent, skill- 
ful, resourceful, understanding his work. 

We produced the willing worker — diligent, indus- 
trious, careful, thorough. 

We produced the Spiritual worker — kind, gentle, pa- 
tient, unyielding, tactful. 

Now, combining all these workers in one composite 
we have the Divine Ideal ; the image and likeness of 
God: man in perfection. 

We cannot hope to become perfect in this world. 
But the harder we strive for perfection, the more we 
know about work and life, the greater we grow in our 
work and in our life. 

This leads us to Knowing and then to Growing, — 
which will now be considered in our analysis of true 
Creativeness in the individual — the development of 
that "Power Within" which is man's only constructive 
power. 



KNOWING 

Knowing is the basis of well-doing. We have seen 
that in the scheme of life we first do, then know, then 



[98] 



CONCENTRATION 



do better, and thus grow. So that doing has been 
considered first. 

Now we take up KNOWING. 

The stages of KNOWING are observation, reading 
and study, memory, imagination, reason, judgment, 
intuition, application to practise, and practise as a 
habit. 



[99] 



CHAPTER XVII 



OBSERVATION 



OBSERVATION is seeing, not merely looking. 
Many look, but few really see — few observe. 
Observing is seeing with understanding, 
comprehending. 

To comprehend a thing we must see its wholeness, 
its completeness, in itself and its relations to other 
things. 

We look at the sun. We see the sun. But we do 
not realize the sun until we take an observation of the 
sun through the telescope, through the spectrum, 
through the eyes of astronomy, and of all science. 
Then we see the sun as the center of the solar system. 
We see that the sun does not move around the earth, 
but that the earth rotating on its axis moves "around 
the sun." As we take scientific observation of the 
"sun spots" we see, however, that the sun while fixed 
in space, does move — that it rotates on its own 
axis. 

We see the flowers in the field. We observe those 



ioo] 



OBSERVATION 



flowers. We watch their development. We learn 
the evolution of plant life. 

We see all life about us — vegetable, animal, human. 
We see men at work. We observe their work. We 
begin to understand how they work, and we learn to 
work ourselves. 

Observation is the using of all our physical senses, 
as we have shown — seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, 
touching. It is "taking pictures" of everything we 
see, impressing those pictures on the sensitive plate 
of our mind. And just as we keep our senses sen- 
sitive — which means, clean, healthful, whole, normal — 
in that degree we see, we observe. 

Alertness is sensitiveness. Eyes open. Ears open. 
Mind open. Heart open. We must be eagerly alert, 
eager to see, to observe, to know. 

One worker walks through his store every day and 
sees nothing except his own merchandise. Too often 
he does not really see his own merchandise — does not 
observe it, does not comprehend it, does not under- 
stand it. Another worker sees and knows not only his 
own merchandise, but much of the other merchandise 
in his store. Which worker do you suppose will ad- 
vance — will grow in usefulness? 

One worker sees a bolt of goods out of its place, 
picks it up and puts it away. Another worker looks 
at a disarranged bolt of goods, only looks at it, and 
lets it lie, in disorder. Which worker will succeed, 
which will fail? 



101] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Finish this chapter yourself. It will be a good les- 
son in observation. Write down the things you really 
see to-day, that you really observe and not merely 
look at. Write down again the things you see to-mor- 
row. 

Day by day, with practise, we grow in observation. 



[102] 



CHAPTER XVIII 

READING AND STUDY 



WE know things by observing them — learning 
as much as we can about them ourselves; 
then by asking questions. 

Reading and study answer most of our questions. 
We ask questions of people, of course, but the world's 
wisdom — man's wisdom — is in books. 

Cultivate a habit of reading. Select topics that bear 
upon our work. Flavor our reading with stories — 
stories of men, of achievement, of life. Go to the 
fountain head of all life, of all knowledge, of all light 
— the Holy Bible. We could destroy all works of sci- 
ence, all works of art, all books of any nature, and 
if we kept in print the Bible alone, man could repro- 
duce all that has ever been written by means of the 
inspiration in the Bible. The Spirit alone creates. 
Man creates through the Spirit. 



[103] 



CHAPTER XIX 



INTUITION 



SOMETIMES we ask questions of ourselves, and 
we receive the answer without knowing why or 
how. We just feel that the answer is true. That 
is intuition. That is the soul speaking in answer to our 
questions, our longing, our desire, our prayer. 

In proportion as the soul truly reflects the Spirit our 
intuition will be true. Pure intuition is always true. 
It is pure Spirit speaking. What we call intui- 
tion, however, is often only our sub-conscious thought, 
or at best the sub-conscious thought of the world — 
the anima mundi, the soul of the world, cosmic thought, 
and not the Animus Dei, the Spirit of God. 

Women have clearer intuition than men. This is be- 
cause they are nearer creation; they are more nearly 
creators. 

I know a woman whose intuition is developed to a 
very high degree. She just knows things. She does 
not know why or how she knows. She just knows. 
This woman feels things before they happen. Her 



104] 



INTUITION 



snap- judgments, first impressions, are nearly always 
correct. I trust her intuition more than I trust my 
own judgment. 

Such a pure soul does not need to study nor to 
puzzle over problems. She goes straight to their solu- 
tion. She has the inner light, she feels the Power 
Within, and she lets the Light and the Power flow out 
in her every action. She can do anything — this won- 
derful woman. She inspires so much faith in us all 
in this household that what her boy said, when as a 
child he broke an iron toy — "Mother can fix it ; Mother 
can do it," — has become an axion in our lives. She 
never knew how to sew before she married. At once 
she began sewing and making her own dresses. She 
did it intuitively. She never knew how to cook or to 
keep house before she married. At once she began 
to do both. 

She can do anything — this woman of God — because 
she lets the Spirit flow through her in its Creative 
Power. 

But most of us are not so fortunate. Most of us are 
not so Spiritual. Most of us are not so intuitive. We 
must see and learn, and study and dig out the Truth 
in painful steps. 

Yet intuition — the Power Within — is within us all. 
If we open our hearts to God it will flow out through 
us into our lives and works. 



[105] 



CHAPTER XX 



MEMORY 



IN business and in life memory is almost as impor- 
tant as health. What accomplishes knowledge 
when it is locked up in a sick body? What is the 
use of cramming knowledge into the brain if we do not 
remember the knowledge? 

"I knew yesterday," will get us nowhere if we fol- 
low it with "but I have forgotten to-day." Poor mem- 
ories make poor workers. "I forgot" never fattened 
a pay-envelope. Neglect of duties, of work, of others, 
of one's self comes largely from a poor memory. 

"I forgot to mail the letter," may send a check to 
protest at the bank and throw a business into bank- 
ruptcy. "I forgot to mark the package special/' so 
that it would go home to-day as promised, may lose 
a valuable customer. "I forgot the appointment," may 
throw a conference into disorder and disarrange a 
vital plan of business — and no quantity of "I am sor- 
rys" will correct the blunder. "I forgot" leads to er- 
rors, delays, lies, crime, sickness, sin and death. 

"But my memory is poor," we say, "I can't help it. 

[106] 



MEMORY 



I was born that way." You were born that way ? Did 
you ever forget to go to dinner, when you were a 
child? No, you remembered your dinner. You re- 
membered your dinner because you were interested in 
eating. Your appetite kept you interested in food. 

"But I have no mental appetite to prod me on." 
Then develop a mental appetite. That's exactly what 
we need in order to develop our memories — a mental 
appetite. 

A mental appetite comes from taking interest in 
things. And as we develop a mental habit — reading 
and studying and asking questions — we find that our 
interest in things and in life grows enormously. The 
physical body grows with material food. The intel- 
lectual body grows with mental food. 

Memory, itself, grows strong with our increasing 
growth, our increasing interest in life and the affairs of 
the world. The thought in our minds is intensified 
and fixed there in proportion as we are interested in 
that thought at the time we think it. 

People do a lot of "thoughtless thinking" — and the 
thoughts fly away again as fast as they enter the mind. 
But thoughtful thinking — interested thinking — leads to 
sound memory. 

We must think intently of the thing we wish to re- 
member. We must concentrate on what we are read- 
ing or hearing or seeing. We must, for the moment, 
rid our minds of every other thought except the one 
thought we wish to remember. 

[107] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



This intense, concentrated, interested thinking fixes 
a thought on the sensitive plate of our brain, as a pic- 
ture is fixed on the photographer's film. Once fixed, a 
thought stays fixed forever. Then we put the thought 
away for future use, and forget all about it — yes, for- 
get all about it ; that is the proper process in memory, 
if we have catalogued the thought. 

A photographer, in the course of his career, takes 
thousands of photographs. He keeps the negatives. 
He can find your negative at a moment's notice, and 
print you a new photograph at any time. He finds the 
negative because he has all his negatives catalogued. 

Thoughts are like negatives — they must be cata- 
logued, if they are to be found again — to be remem- 
bered. Catalogued alphabetically? No. Catalogued 
according to the association of ideas. 

When we put away a thought in our minds we must 
put with it its association. "You don't remember me," 
says Mr. Blank. He smiles as I shake hands with him 
in New York City. "Smile, hospitality, comfort, big 
room, fireplace, sky, outdoors, seeing Nature, see" — 
runs instantly through my mind. "Ah, yes, Mr. See- 
ly ; we had a wonderful Christmas at your Grove Park 
Inn, Asheville. I'm glad to see you again." The man, 
the name, everything about him, is remembered years 
later, by associating him with his home and his sur- 
roundings. 

I often remember what I read by fixing in my mind 
the appearance of the page and the type on the page — 



fio8] 



MEMORY 



when I recall the passage later I literally read it off 
the imagined page which I have fixed in my mind and 
which I see clearly before me. 

Thoughts fixed on the mind singly are hard to re- 
member — to recall. Thoughts fixed in association with 
other thoughts — put away in associated groups, in 
clusters — are easily remembered, easily recalled. 

Recalling a thought is remembering. A thought once 
fixed in the brain is always in the brain. Failure of 
memory is only failure to recall a thought. 

Read with interest. Study with interest. If we can- 
not read or study with interest, we would better stop 
for the time, and take a walk. The disinterested reader 
or student fails to remember. His time is wasted. 

Never read or study except when our mind shows 
interest. Our thoughts then become fixed thoughts. 

Always read and study with some definite object in 
view — we then associate this reading and studying 
with something purposeful and by this association we 
are able to recall when needed what we have read and 
studied. 

Remember, now, that memory comes from interest 
and association; and remember this truth by fixing it, 
in our minds as follows — "I-in-enter-rest" — I let the 
thought soak in, enter my brain and there it rests, be- 
comes fixed, until I want to use it. Interest. "So-she- 
ate" — I never forgot dinner-time when a child — "so- 
she-ate" — associate — association. 



[109] 



CHAPTER XXI 



IMAGINATION 



EVEN memory — the remembering of what we 
observe and read and study — is not enough to 
make life constructive. Memory alone does 
not start the flow of the Creative Power within. A 
builder of a house observes what he needs to build with. 
He gathers the materials. Then he builds. Observa- 
tion, reading, study and interrogation gather the men- 
tal materials (thoughts). Memory preserves and class- 
ifies them. Then Imagination builds — builds the 
thoughts into ideas. 

The builder of a house cannot build without a plan. 
An architect must supply the plan — the idea. The ar- 
chitect is the real builder. 

Imagination is the architect of the mind — the real 
builder. And here we get back again to the primary 
origin of all things — thought. 

Thought is first — primary. The thought of a build- 
ing comes before the building itself. The thought of 
the building actually creates the building. 

Thought is the only creator — all-originating Thought 



[no] 



IMAGINATION 



of Spirit and the thought of man, reflecting the Spirit. 

Imagination then, is the builder — the builder of 
ideas. And ideas — constructive ideas — rule the world. 

Ideas may be both constructive and destructive. Im- 
agination can build inversely, negatively, falsely, as 
well as positively, truly, wisely. "I have a great idea," 
says the burglar. "The paper says So-and-So has 
bought a fine diamond necklace for his wife's Christ- 
mas. This is Christmas Eve. The necklace must be 
in the house. I have had my eye on that house for 
months. The house is easy to enter. I will break in 
to-night and steal that necklace." That is a powerful 
imagination in action, but it is acting in the wrong 
way. 

A building constructed of rotten wood, of bricks 
without straw, of defective plumbing, will soon fall 
to pieces. Ideas constructed of rotten thoughts, im- 
pure motives, and wrong intent, soon become deadly 
engines of destruction. 

Imagination in constructive building takes true 
thoughts, good thoughts, wise thoughts and builds them 
into constructive ideas. 

So, we reach the great truth again that Spirit must 
live in the Imagination if we would build our lives 
truly. Imagination, when imbued with Spirit, leads 
to constructive thinking. It leads to constructive 
building. It enables us to look ahead, to plan. It 
makes us fore-sighted. Imagination Spiritualized 
makes us truly creative, 

[mi 



CHAPTER XXII 

APPLICATION TO PRACTISE 



KNOWLEDGE is not knowledge until it is ap- 
plied. We do not really know a thing until we 
put our knowledge into practise. A human dic- 
tionary has a hard time "making a living." 

Knowledge, wisdom, even understanding fails in its 
fulfillment without application to practise. 

Here again we see how interrelated are doing and 
knowing. We cannot well do unless we know. We 
cannot well know unless we do. 

"Your ideas sound good, but are they practical?'* — 
runs the age-old business test. Practise proves theory. 
The two must work together. 

"Practise what we preach; preach only what we 
practise" is a good rule to follow. Think out our 
lives — then live our thoughts. 

If we are a theorist, an "imaginer," a dreamer, 
thank God for the gift, but join our hands in business 
with a practical man of affairs, if we would succeed in 
material things. 



[112] 



APPLICATION TO PRACTISE 



Even the most practical of men, who are successful, 
dream; or they link themselves with a dreamer. In- 
ventors are dreamers. Morse, Bell, Edison, Wright, 
all dreamed their inventions — through their imagina- 
tions — but some one put their dreams into reality, into 
practise. 

Dreams must become real. Ideas must work. The- 
ory must prove practical. Only in actual practise and 
living do we reach the fulfillment of Creation. The 
Spirit must be manifested in individuality before it 
finds its complete realization of being. Spirit can 
manifest itself only through an efficient trained indi- 
vidual, the kind of individual which, as we have seen, 
develops only through hard work, careful training, 
ceaseless study and investigation plus the inspiration 
that comes from within. As Troward says, in his per- 
sonal letter to me (published in this book) ; "You 
won't get technical knowledge by inspiration, though 
you may get a sort of inspirational expansion of your 
technical knowledge when you have, by hard work, got 
a thorough knowledge of the sort of material you are 
handling." 

The Power Within must become a Power without 
ourselves before we begin to live our whole lives. 



[113] 



CHAPTER XXIII 



PRACTISE AS A HABIT 



PRACTISE makes perfect. Practise as a habit — 
in doing — develops skill. Practise as a habit — 
in knowing — develops certainty, assurance, un- 
derstanding. 

When a thing is found to be sound in practise, we 
keep on doing that thing. We make it a habit. We 
standardize it. When a thing becomes standard in our 
lives it creates for us automatically. 

God's creation of the universe was perfect — in theory 
and in practise. It therefore goes on automatically 
forever. Spring comes. Sap runs in the trees. Trees 
bud and bear fruit. The resurrection comes every 
Springtime before our very eyes. Here is creation go- 
ing on automatically — from seed to bud, to fruit, to 
seed again — never-ending creation. 

As the individual standardises his life in well-doing 
— applies his health, applies his energy, applies his 
understanding, applies his dreams — makes true life a 
habit — he grows in true creativeness. 



["4] 



PRACTISE AS A HABIT 



GROWING 

Growing proceeds out of doing and knowing. 
Growth comes from knowledge and practise; from 
knowing what to do, how to do, and in doing skillfully. 

Skill comes from practise. Practise becomes habit. 
Systems of practise, standards of practise, come from 
knowing how to do the thing in the best, shortest and 
quickest way. 

We have seen that efficiency results from doing a 
thing in the best, shortest and quickest way. 

We have seen that true Creativeness results from 
doing the right thing in the wisest, simplest, best, short- 
est, quickest and most harmonious way. As Creative- 
ness is from within, so growth is from within. Inward 
growth makes outward success. We know as we do. 
We do better as we know. We grow as we do well 
and know well. And, measured by human standards, 
we succeed as we grow. 

But growth is growing development; proceeding 
slowly, successively, surely. Trees grow layer by 
layer. Man grows area by area — in ever-widening 
circles; reaching up to ever-broadening planes. Man 
grows physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. 
Complete growth includes growth in all these circles. 

True growth, therefore, embraces the body, the 
mind, the soul and the Spirit. Let us now see how 
these four parts of man manifest themselves in work 
and in life. 



[us] 



CHAPTER XXIV 



ABILITY 



IN the business world ability seems to be the first 
requisite of growing, as health is the first requi- 
site of doing, and observation is the first requisite 
of knowing. 

"Have you the ability to hold the job?" is the first 
question asked. "Can you do the work, do you know 
the work?" 

Ability is able-n-ess to do. Are we able? is the 
eternal query. If we are able to do the work we get 
the job. As we prove our ability and increase in abil- 
ity — do the job better and better — we grow. 

But we must not forget the four parts of man — 
body, mind, soul, Spirit. 

Ability includes physical equipment — the qualities of 
health, strength, energy, endurance. These qualities 
come from hard, ceaseless work to perfect the physical 
machine of man. 

Ability includes mental equipment — the qualities of 
understanding, skill, determination, carefulness, order- 



[116] 



ABILITY 



liness, thoroughness, action, vision. These qualities 
come from observation and study applied to practise. 

Ability includes moral equipment — the qualities of 
character, good habits, purity, temperance, patience, 
sacrifice, moderation, loyalty. These qualities come 
from right living in our every day lives. 

Ability includes spiritual equipment — the qualities of 
love, truth, harmony, faith, understanding and affirma- 
tion of Spirit itself. These qualities come both from 
within and from without. 

In this complete recognition we see that ability in- 
cludes everything — inspiration as well as technical 
training. But man's busy world — the world of business 
— looks upon ability as only physical and mental — tech- 
nical. It uses another word to describe moral and 
Spiritual work and we shall use that word here. 

That word is dependability. 



[»7l 



CHAPTER XXV 



DEPENDABILITY 



" S^\ AN we depend upon this man's ability?" the 
1 employer asks himself. "He has ability, I 

^-^ see that in his work. But he has never been 
"tested under fire." Can he stand the test of the criti- 
cal moment? In plain parlance, can he "stand the 
gaff?" 

Our character, integrity, reliability then come under 
the searchlight. These are soul qualities. Our repu- 
tation is searched into. Our former boss is asked, 
"was this man reliable?" 

Reputation is not character. Reputation is what we 
appear to others. Character is what we are — in our- 
selves. A man may bear a good reputation in the 
community, yet he may be bad in character. He 
merely has not yet been "found out." But under pres- 
sure, "under the gaff," at the critical moment, he will 
disclose his true character ; he will not be dependable. 
He will lie, he will steal, he will kill, as his true char- 
acter unfolds itself. 



118] 



DEPENDABILITY 

To be really dependable we must be dependable in 
all things, little and big; at all times; in all places; 
under all circumstances. 

The partly-dependable man is a makeshift. He will 
go to pieces in an emergency, in a crisis. 

If we are sickly we are only partly-dependable. If 
we have uncertain knowledge of our work we are only 
partly-dependable. If we have bad habits, weak char- 
acter, weak wills, we are only partly-dependable. If 
we lack faith and understanding in Spirit we are only 
partly-dependable. 

The business world doesn't want partially depend- 
able workers. It demands fully dependable men and 
women. Business has to use partially dependable 
workers because enough others are not available, but 
it is seeking all the time to grow fully dependable work- 
ers. 

Only as we grow in dependability do we grow in our 
jobs, in success, in rewards, in wages, salary, income. 



r»9i 



CHAPTER XXVI 



INTEREST 



HOW can we grow in dependability?" is the 
constant cry of the worker. "How can I 
grow so that I and my co-workers can de- 
pend upon my ability?" 

Well, the first way is to increase our ability — our 
understanding, our skill. Read more, study more, do 
more. Try, try, try. Do, do, do. Be more careful, 
more thorough. Use our imagination more. Become 
builders. Put Spirit into our work. 

Here our old friend "Interest" comes to our aid 
again. It is easy to read, to study, if we are interested. 
We ask questions when we are interested. We learn. 

It is easy to do when we are interested. It is easy 
to learn to do the job better, to become skilful, when 
we are interested. 

Choose a job, then, that holds your interest. Choose 
work in which you become interested because you 
will then work according to your "natural bent." 

Employers are learning that the science of employ- 



[120] 



INTEREST 



merit places workers in the jobs in which they will be 
interested. A square peg does not fit in a round hole. 
A round peg rattles and wobbles in a square hole — 
produces friction. 

Fitting workers to their jobs is the problem of em- 
ployment to-day. A worker fits a job when he is inter- 
ested in the job. Interest creates desire to know and 
to do more; and as we know and do more we grow 
more. The worker can help in this scientific selection 
of work by frankly telling his employer the things he 
is interested in. 

Even if we cannot, for the time, secure a job we are 
interested in, we can develop interest in the job we 
hold by concentration and hard work. I know a man 
who came fresh out of college without any knowledge 
of business. "I think I would like to go into a book 
store," he said. There is no money in books, I ex- 
plained. Books are a non-productive part of this busi- 
ness. You won't "produce" in books. You won't cre- 
ate wealth. You won't earn much salary. He thought 
over this. Finally came into the invoice room of our 
business, into the general merchandise. He took off his 
coat and rolled up his sleeves. Unpacked goods. As- 
sorted goods. Examined goods. Studied all manner 
of merchandise. He became interested in his work. 
He saw that books were not the only interesting mer- 
chandise, as he had thought in college. He learned to 
know merchandise in all its variety. He took up the 
study of buying merchandise. He went into the mer- 

[121] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



chandise office. Knuckled down to figures, statistics — 
how he hated that work at first ! But he stuck to his 
job. He kept up his interest in every branch of mer- 
chandising. To-day that man, in the early thirties, is 
head of the Merchandise Bureau of a great store. He 
succeeded because he forced himself to become inter- 
ested in what he was doing. Now he has a natural in- 
terest in his work. He has found his job. 

So, through interest, we grow in ability and in de- 
pendability. 



[122] 



CHAPTER XXVII 

SELF-RELIANCE 



AS we grow in ability and in dependability we 
grow in self-reliance. "Can others rely on my 
ability, on my dependability?" is the first test 
of growth. Can I, myself, rely on my ability, my de- 
pendability, is the final test. If I can rely on myself, 
there is no doubt about others relying on me. If I am 
true to myself, I will always be true to others. 

Self-reliance gives us self-confidence, positiveness, 
poise, balance, affirmativeness. If we can rely on our- 
selves under any condition, in any emergency, under 
any strain, we are equipped physically, mentally, moral- 
ly, Spiritually — we are ready and equipped to do and 
to dare anything. 

The self-reliant worker needs no supervision, and 
our worth in business is guaged by the supervision we 
require. Much supervision by our bosses means small 
self-reliance — and small pay. Little supervision means 
large self-reliance, and large pay. 

Complete self-reliance grows the Master in business ; 
the Merchant Prince, the Captain of Industry. 

[123] 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



TENACITY 



WE never reach self-reliance unless we stick to 
our work, improving each day, growing each 
day. Stick-to-it-iveness, grit, bull-dog tenac- 
ity — this wins the prizes. Faint heart never wins fair 
lady — nor a full job, nor fullness of life. 

That man-out-of-college stuck to his job, even though 
at first he was not interested — and he won success. 
That other man — hundreds of thousands of other men 
— faltered on the way, gave up, slipped, fell— and lost 
success when perhaps it was just around the corner. 

Many a man gives up his job in despair, and begins 
again in a new place, just as he was about to be pro- 
moted. 

Man can rise above conditions, can arise about dis- 
interest, can overcome all obstacles if he will stick to 
his work. 

Limitations are man-made. There is no limitation 
in Spirit. 

Take God into our work, and barriers and limitations 
fall away. 

Stick to the job and the job will stick to us. 



124] 



CHAPTER XXIX 



CONSERVATION 



NATURE never wastes," is an old saying. 
Nature cannot waste because Nature — Spirit 
— is Creativeness. Nature, or Spirit, does 
not distribute, it only creates. Only man distributes. 
Man is the distributor. 

Man, therefore, is the waster — the waster of energy, 
the waster of material, the waster of resources — time, 
capacity, wealth, opportunity. 

If Nature were not such a prodigal creator of all 
things man would have "wasted away" the world long 
ago. Man wastes the soil, the minerals, the metals, the 
forests, the streams — all the natural resources. Then 
man is "brought up" with a shock in time of stress — 
in this world- war — and he suffers because of his waste- 
fulness. 

Perfect efficiency — cosmic mind — the wisdom of the 
world — wastes nothing. It does everything in the best, 
shortest, quickest way. It uses just enough energy, 
just enough skill, just enough time, just enough money, 

[125] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



just enough material — and conserves the remainder for 
future use. 

"Waste not, want not." We are learning the mean- 
ing of this phrase, in all sorrow to-day. 

As a distributor of power man must learn to dis- 
tribute without waste. Spirit is infinite. There is al- 
ways enough Spiritual power, because it is without 
limitation. But we do not call upon Spiritual power 
enough. We use man-power. And we find that man 
power is finite. We waste man power and the human 
dynamo runs out of current. 

We waste our health and strength. We waste energy. 
We waste our brain power. We waste our nerves. We 
waste our time, our money, our opportunity. Then 
we wonder why we are not efficient in our work. We 
waste Spirit, and we wonder why we are not growing 
into a higher life. 

But man is learning. He is not the spendthrift, the 
wastrel that he was a few years ago. As nations, we 
are conserving our natural resources in all lands; 
timber, coal, food. As workers we are becoming more 
efficient, conserving human energy, time, opportunity. 
As capitalists we are conserving our money. As com- 
munities we are conserving our health and our lives. 
As individuals we are conserving the Power Within 
and the power without which together make up our- 
selves. 



[126] 



CHAPTER XXX 



VISION 



CONSERVATION comes from Vision. 
Vision is seeing-ahead ; open-mindedness ; 
breadth of mind and view. Vision is also 
"seeing-up" — into Spirit. 

We open our eyes and our minds to all that is going 
on around us — and we have mental vision. We open 
our hearts and our souls to all that is going on inside 
of us — and we have new Spiritual vision. In both 
cases we "see a light, a new light"; it beckons us on 
to better and higher things. 

Men with mental vision are the leaders of the world. 
Men with Spiritual Vision are always the leaders of 
men — the prophets. 

Vision in material things is the ability to see around 
corners, through brick walls, into depths, over moun- 
tains. It is the quality of "seeing-all-around" a thing; 
seeing and understanding the thing itself ; seeing it in 
its true relation with other things. 

Of course, men with this vision are the leaders of 
the world. They know that law is the foundation of 

[127] 



LIVING THF CREATIVE LIFE 



all creation. They realize that nothing happens by 
chance. They study the law. They analyze the law. 
They know what is going to happen by realizing the 
law of cause and effect, the law of compensation which 
Emerson so logically and satisfyingly outlines in one of 
his immortal essays. 

And men with Spiritual vision are the prophets of 
God because they understand God, they affirm God, 
they live God. 

In work and in life we need both mental vision and 
Spiritual vision. We must visualize and understand 
human events, human nature, human frailty, human 
strength. We must know what the average man will 
do under the average circumstances. We must adapt 
our work to human conditions. At the same time we 
must visualize and understand Spirit. We must know 
the source of all power, all creation. We must live the 
Spirit of God, whilh we are still giving the the spirit 
of man. We must keep our feet on the earth and not 
be constantly reaching for the moon. But at the same 
time we must be striving for higher and better things ; 
for a better job, a better home, a better life. 

As we change mental vision into Spiritual Vision we 
grow in the understanding and fullness of life. 



[128] 



CHAPTER XXXI 



AMBITION 



WE grow in mental vision and in Spiritual 
Vision as we have ambition for better and 
higher things, as we desire to live more 
bountifully. 

Ambition is the desire to grow. "He's an ambitious 
fellow," says Mr. Employer, "I think I will advance 
him. He desires to learn, to grow." 

"He lacks ambition," is the death-knell of another 
worker. "He has ability, he has skill, he has health, 
but he doesn't seem to want to do more — he lacks ambi- 
tion. I guess we'll have to pass him by." 

Growth is a matter of personal effort, personal de- 
sire. Just as the Spirit relies upon the personal in- 
itiative of man to manifest Spirit in individuality, so 
the world relies upon the personal initiative of the 
worker, his desire, his ambition to grow, for all ad- 
vancement. 

No one can "grow us." We must grow ourselves. 
We grow only as we desire to grow. Nothing comes 



[129] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



except through desire. And, conversely, everything 
comes to us if we desire it strongly enough — strongly 
enough to make ourselves able and fit to receive it. 

This truth is recognition, again, of the all-Creative- 
ness of Spirit. If we allow Spirit to create within us, 
Spirit will create within us. Spirit will create only 
true desires, good desires, beautiful desires, because 
the attributes of Spirit are Truth, Good, Beauty, Wis- 
dom. And these desires will be fired into ambition 
because Spirit is always striving for more livingness — 
for more fullness of life. 

Spirit therefore, creates ambition and directs it. 
Spirit makes us desire to grow and guides our growt^i. 
Spirit gives us true ambition. 



[130] 



CHAPTER XXXII 

S LOYALTY 



LOYALTY is allegiance — in words, thoughts, 
deeds, and daily work and living. Loyalty is 
the allegiance which people owe and give to 
one another, to their homes, to their work, to their 
neighborhood, to their city, to their state, to their na- 
tion, or to a Cause, because of a community of interests 
arising from a common creation of benefits and respon- 
sibilities. 

Loyalty is based on the golden rule — do unto others 
as you would have others do unto ydu. 

Loyalty is whole-hearted, unselfish, steadfast devo- 
tion and fidelity ; in adversity as in prosperity. 

Loyalty is a giving up of self in a common cause in 
order to increase each individual's welfare, capacity, 
opportunity and service, and thus increase the welfare 
and service of all. 

We hear much about loyalty these war-time days — 
loyalty to country ; patriotism. Some people think that 
patriotism sums up all loyalty — "my country, right or 

[131] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



wrong," they say. "My country — always right" is a 
better way to express this loyalty. 

But how about loyalty in Germany — is Germany 
right? No. Yet her people are loyal according to their 
understanding, but their understanding is distorted. 

Now, suppose that instead of being loyal only to our 
country, we are loyal to a principle — to the Great Prin- 
ciple: Truth, Love, Good, Beauty (Harmony), Wis- 
dom. Even a whole people may mistake the truth, 
may mistake the good, may mistake the beautiful, and 
be blindly loyal. But they cannot mistake all these if 
they have wisdom also. 

"But the German people have wisdom!" you say, 
"their universities and schools, their scientific and philo- 
sophic works, are profound." 

Yes, profound is the word. German scholars have 
been delving deep into material things, but not high 
into Spiritual things. Germany has left Spirit out of 
her wisdom, and she is paying the penalty. 

Truth is distorted, love is inverted, beauty is des- 
troyed, life is sacrificed because Germany lacks the in- 
ner light, the) true understanding of God. She needs 
another Martin Luther, another John Calvin, another 
Ulrich Zwingli to set her right. 

There is one loyalty that includes all loyalty, even 
loyalty to country, to home, to one's self, to humanity. 
That all-inclusive loyalty is loyalty to God. 

If we understand our origin, in the scheme of trea- 

[132] 



LOYALTY 

tion, and our duties as men — made in the image and 
likeness of God — -distributors of the all-creative Spirit 
— and if we acknowledge, affirm and live the Spirit, 
we must be loyal in the highest sense of the word. We 
will then be loyal to our country, to our firesides, to 
business, to others, to all humanity, because we will 
be loyal to ourselves — our true selves — and to our 
Maker. 

Loyalty includes honor. Loyalty includes justice. 
Loyalty includes mercy. Loyalty includes sacrifice. 

Millions of men to-day are sacrificing their lives to 
honor, to justice, to truth, to loyalty. 

Sacrifice is a necessary part of loyalty. Loyalty de- 
mands the giving of self; the sacrifice of self. 

We give ourselves to our business and we are loyal 
to our business. We give ourselves to our homes — to 
our families — and we are loyal to our homes. We give 
ourselves to our country and we are loyal to our coun- 
try. We give ourselves to others — to humanity — and 
we are loyal to humanity. We give ourselves to our- 
selves — to the Spirit, of which we are the reflection — 
and we are loyal to ourselves and to God. 

"I'm for myself," say many men, "loyalty begins at 
home." This is the opposite, the negative of loyalty. 
It is selfishness. Such men give themselves not to their 
true self, which is the image of God, but to their in- 
verted distorted self; to the man-created man, not to 
the God-created Man. And so they give themselves up 
to narrowness, to jealousy, to envy, to hatred, to bigo- 

[133] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



try, to that perverted sdfness of theirs, which is the 
rankest growth of selfishness and disloyalty. 

Loyalty demands full surrender of self. The ex- 
pression "coldly faithful" depicts the worker who al- 
ways has his eye on the time clock, who is never late 
but who also never stays a moment "after hours" to 
finish his work. It depicts the worker who does just 
his own job but never lends a helping hand to his 
neighbor. It depicts the worker who lives up to the 
"letter" of the business, yes, to the last X, Y, Z, but 
not to the "spirit" of the business. 

"Warmly loyal" is a far different expression. It sug- 
gests eagerness to do more, eagerness to help others, 
eagerness to learn and to grow, eagerness to give self 
for the good of the whole organization. 

Loyalty begets loyalty. Loyalty is contagious. Bring 
one loyal worker — warmly loyal worker — into an or- 
ganization, a cold organization, and his spirit will be 
catching. It will "warm up" his neighbor. It will 
"warm up" the grouch. It will "warm up" even the 
sneak, th eslacker, the trouble-maker. It will "warm 
up" — in time — the coldest boss. "The boss," is often 
cold because his men are not loyal. They may be faith- 
ful, but not loyal. Let the workers once show the 
boss they are loyal, warmly loyal, and he, the cold boss, 
will warm in his attitude towards them. The whole 
workshop will glow with Spirit. When a workshop 
glows with Spirit, when all the workers get into the 
spirit of the business and the spirit of the business 

[134] 



LOYALTY 



gets into them, then real creativeness begins. The out- 
put is increased. Wages jump. Material prosperity 
follows. 

Yes, loyalty pays — in dollars and cents ; but it pays 
much larger dividends in happiness, in contentment. 

The successful man is the loyal man. The happy 
man is the loyal man. The true man is the loyal man. 



[i3Sl 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



FAITH 



FAITH is the outgrowth of loyalty. We are here 
speaking not of that "cold faith" mentioned in 
the last chapter. True faith is true belief, true 
understanding, true life. 

We have faith in a thing because we believe in that 
thing. We believe in that thing because we have full 
understanding of it. Having full understanding we 
know the thing is good, is true, is right, is beautiful. 
So we have faith in it. 

Blind faith is merely trustfulness. We trust to some 
one else's understanding. Blind faith — trustfulness — 
takes us pretty far along the way of life ; but all-seeing 
faith, all-knowing faith, all-living faith, takes us all 
the way — home to God. 

Faith, like loyalty, becomes all-inclusive as it in- 
cludes Spirit. Faith in our work, faith in our capacity, 
faith in others, faith in ourselves, all flow from faith 
in God. 

"No man can deceive me if I show perfect faith in 



[136] 



FAITH 



him," is an axiom of a great business man. It is true, 
as a rule, that a burglar will not rob a friend, a crim- 
inal will not double-cross one who trusts him ; a mur- 
derer will not kill one who trustfully turns his back 
and has faith that the man will not shoot him. Only 
"when thieves fall out" — when they begin to lose faith 
in one another — "do honest men get their dues." 

Perfect faith always arouses perfect faith as its 
reciprocal action. Half-way faith begets suspicion. 
Men fail to arouse faith because they are only par- 
tially faithful themselves. 

Unlike loyalty, which is a surrender of self, faith 
is a receiver of self. We give ourselves to God in 
loyalty and God gives Himself to us, in our Faith — in 
other words, He gives us back to ourselves. 

"Faith is essentially thought," says Troward, "and 
therefore every call to have faith in God is a call to 
trust in the power of our own thought about God." 

"As we believe so shall we receive." As we have 
faith in our business, in our work, in ourselves, we 
succeed. 

Faith, therefore, brings with it confidence ; it brings 
courage ; it brings assurance. 

All courage — physical, mental and Spiritual — is 
based on faith. The "bully" has faith in his own phys- 
ical prowess or his "bluff." He has physical courage. 
The learned man has faith in his own knowledge. He 
has the courage of his convictions — mental courage. 
The pioneer, the prophet, the leaders of men have faith 



[137] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



not only in their own physical strength, their own men- 
tal and moral power. They have Spiritual faith — faith 
in Spirit. Nothing daunts them, nothing stops them. 

Physical courage is futile unless backed up with 
mental and Spiritual courage. Courage of any kind is 
not courage unless it is founded on faith. 

Faith grows as we grow in understanding. Faith 
grows as we walk with God, as we talk with God, as 
we live God. 



[138] 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

INITIATIVE 



■" NITIATIVE is the direct result of faith. 



I 



Man is the distributor of the all-creative Power 
within us. Man does not create Power. He dis- 
tributes it. 

Man cannot be a distributor, unless he distributes. 
Man cannot distribute unless he elects — chooses— to 
distribute ; unless he takes the initiative. Man will not 
take the initiative unless he has faith. 

We have seen, in the nature of things, that even the 
Spirit cannot manifest itself in the individual unless the 
individual takes the initiative and becomes the dis- 
tributor. Man must have choice, he must have liberty 
to choose, else there could be no expression of indi- 
viduality. If choice were automatic, if all men were 
automatically forced by God to choose the Right, all 
men would be like one another, there would be no in- 
dividuality. 

Well, now, Faith comes along and helps us choose, 
helps us select the right from the wrong, the true from 
the false ; Faith starts initiative. 

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LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Faith sets initiative in motion, because it is human 
nature to do the thing that we believe in, that we trust 
in, that we have faith in. 

Faith is fired by desire. We long for something. 
The longing begets faith. Faith, inspired by longing 
sets in motion initiative. We go for the thing we want, 
that we believe in, that we have faith in. Initiative 
is faith in action. 

Initiative may be either positive or negative; con- 
structive or destructive. Men initiate error. They 
initiate sickness. They initiate crime and sin. They 
initiate trouble, and suffering, and sorrow. All this is 
initiative in the wrong direction — negatively, destruc- 
tively. 

Initiative must therefore be based on true faith, 
which is based on true Spirit, which is God. If we in- 
itiate the Spirit we will initiate nothing bad and every- 
thing good. 

Initiative in business is doing the right thing at the 
right time in the right way without being told. This 
also is true creativeness. Initiative is really nothing 
else but true creativeness, because man is the distribu- 
tor of Spirit. What man initiates to distribute he cre- 
ates. 

If we do the right thing, at the right time, in the 
right way, without supervision, we become a master — 
the master workman. I 

The world is looking for master workmen, for men 
with true initiative. Workers who have to be told, who 



[140] 



INITIATIVE 



have to be shown, who have to be supervised in every- 
thing they do— workers who can follow but not lead — 
are plentiful. Workers with initiative are scarce. 

Workers with initiative are leaders. They get the 
"big jobs." They get the big salaries. They get all 
these things because they earn them. 

The way to develop initiative is to develop all the 
qualities of doing and knowing and growing as they 
have been outlined in this book. But all these qualities 
are pretty well summed up in health, understanding, 
self-reliance and faith. These qualities — as all quali- 
ties that are positive — come from Truth, from Love, 
from Wisdom, from Harmony. 

Truth, Love, Wisdom, Harmony come from the 
Sprirt. Spirit is God. And God is Good. 

BEING 



Now we are ready to consider BEING, and the part 
it plays in the development of the Creative Power in 
the individual. 

We have examined into life itself. We have tried 
to analyze life — to trace, in all reverence, its source. 
We have seen that life is Spirit. 

We have seen and understood that Spirit is the only 
Creative Power; that Spirit creates itself, that it cre- 
ates matter, that it creates all good things. Spirit is 

[hi] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



creating here and now because Spirit is infinite — with- 
out limitation of time or space. 

We have realized that man is one with Spirit be- 
cause man is the reflection, the projection, the mani- 
festation of Spirit — created in the image and likeness 
of God. 

We have seen that Spirit and Thought are one. 

We have comprehended the great truth that as orig- 
inal Thought is the true Creator — in the universe — so 
thought in man is the creative power here on earth. 

We have seen that inverted thought — distorted 
thought — erring material thought — creates also; that 
the material thought of man, exclusive of Spirit, cre- 
ates the errors of life — errors that are the absence of 
Truth, and therefore truly imaginary, yet very real, 
indeed, to material man in his relation to material 
life. We have seen that these errors manifest them- 
selves in sickness and suffering, in sin and sorrow, in 
weakness and failure, in crime and war, in destruction 
and death. 

We have seen that to live and be, man must first do, 
then know, then grow. We have analyzed the construc- 
tive, the positive, qualities of doing, knowing, growing, 
which lead to success. 

Now we shall examine into BEING itself — the be- 
ing that results from doing, knowing and growing. 
We shall analyze the constructive qualities of being — 
and thus complete the chart of the Creative Power in 
Man. 



[142] 



A 



CHAPTER XXXV 



GOOD THOUGHTS 



IF Thought is the only Creative Power, then good 
thoughts must be first of the qualities of creative 
living. 

Good thoughts are the human concept of original, 
eternal and infinite Thought. Good thoughts are God's 
thoughts expressed in the livingness of man. 

In the degree that man lives in the image of God he 
will have and live good thoughts. In the degree that 
man has and lives good thoughts he will grow in the 
image of God. As man grows in the image of God he 
grows in creativeness, in productiveness, in the joy and 
happiness of the fullness of life. 

Good thoughts actually create health, wealth and 
happiness because good thoughts — God's Thoughts — 
flowing through man, being distributed by man, are the 
Original Creative Power in action in the individual. 

Thought gets into action through visualization. To 
visualize is to "call up a mental image or picture with 
a distinctness approaching actual vision." "What is 

[143] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



this Me?" says Carlyle, "A Voice, a Motion, an Ap- 
pearance — some embodied visualised Idea in the Eter- 
nal Mind." 

First we must visualize Man as the Idea of God — 
make ourselves as much like God as possible. Then 
we must visualize God's thoughts — good thoughts — in 
our concrete acts of living. 

God's thoughts, as we have seen, are thoughts that 
have the attributes of Truth, of Love, of Wisdom, of 
Beauty, of Harmony. Good thoughts in man must 
also have these same attributes. 

When we visualize in our minds — form distinct men- 
tal pictures — of things that are true, are honest, are 
honorable, are just, are kind, are wise, are beautiful, 
are in harmony with the universe, we soon find these 
thoughts creating themselves into true, beautiful and 
good forms or acts. 

The man who visualizes good thoughts becomes the 
vehicle through which God creates good things for him 
in the material world. God is the Creator, man is only 
the instrument of creation. Thought is the creator, 
good thoughts are the instrument of creation. 

Evil thoughts — man's evil thoughts — also create, but 
they must necessarily create evil things. Stress, is, 
therefore, laid on the importance of thinking good 
thoughts, if we are to live a constructively creative life. 
It is a simple matter to test the creative power of 
good thoughts. We need not test the power of evil 
thoughts — we see what they create for man in our 

[!44] 



GOOD THOUGHTS 



every day life. We have angry thoughts. We lose 
our temper in our homes and in our business affairs. 
Discord immediately follows. "Two to one against the 
angry man" is a familiar saying based on human ex- 
perience, meaning that an angry man in his dealings 
with his fellows has two chances to lose against one 
to win in whatever he attempts to do. We have jealous 
thoughts, envious thoughts, and we immediately see 
things in their inversion, we get an inverted perspec- 
tive. We lose the sense of balance, of harmony, and 
our judgments and actions become warped. We have 
evil thoughts — and we sin and suffer. 

Now, suppose we test the creative power of good 
thoughts. We think kindly of our neighbor, of our 
fellow worker. We seek to work in harmony with 
others. We seek out the good in others. We search 
for and find the Truth. We live the Truth. Immedi- 
ately we call to our aid all the good in others, all the 
good in ourselves — all the God in man — and we create 
all good things for ourselves and for others. 

Suppose we have a difficult problem in business to 
solve. We search for the truth. We find the truth. 
We proceed to act on the truth, balancing our rights 
with the rights of others (which is Love). We solve 
the problem with equal justice to all — in harmony with 
universal, original, all-creative Thought. 

We are a workman. We have a piece of furniture to 
make. We seek the Truth — about that particular piece 
of furniture— a chair for instance. We learn its proper 

[145] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



lines, its proper dimensions, its proper balance. We 
know it must be strong to be useful. We know it must 
be of certain dimensions to be comfortable. We know 
it must be harmonious — or artistic— to be beautiful. 
We know it must be honestly made to be true. So, we 
test our plans by the test of truth, of love (comfort), 
of beauty, of harmony. Then we visualize such a chair 
— form a distinct mental picture of it in our minds — 
and we actually create the chair, if we have the skill of 
an ordinary carpenter; or if we are only a designer, 
we have a skilled workman create the chair according 
to our visualization, according to our plan. 

Thought actually creates the chair — and it is a good 
chair, because created by a good thought. Thought is 
the only creator. Good thoughts are the only construc- 
tive creator in man. 



[i 4 6] 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

GOOD HABITS 



TO begin at the beginning, living is personal. 
Each individual must live his own life. No 
one can live for him. Each individual, as a 
distinct entity, must create his own life, must perfect 
his own life, as well as he can. What the individual 
lives that he becomes. Being is the result of living. 

Good habits, are therefore, the result of living rightly 
— of being the right sort of man or woman. Habits 
come from thoughts. Habits come from thinking and 
doing a thing over and over again. Good habits come 
from thinking and doing good things over and over 
again. Good habits are constructive habits — habits rhat 
build up instead erf tearing down. 

Good habits, constructive habits, must, therefore, 
have the qualities of Spirit itself — qualities of truth, 
love, wisdom, beauty. Such qualities in terms of 
every-day living are : honesty, purity, temperance, char- 
ity, moderation — all summed up in the one word, 
harmony. 



[147] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



These qualities belong to both body and mind and 
are inter-related between the two. Purity in body pro- 
duces purity in thought. Purity in thought produces 
purity in body. When our bodies are in harmony 
with Nature and our thoughts in harmony with the uni- 
verse both are pure. 

Temperance in eating, drinking, smoking, eating 
candy, or any other habit of the body, and temperance 
in thought, both result from harmony — perfect balance. 

Honesty in action and honesty in thought go to- 
gether and are a manifestation of Truth. 

Gentleness, kindness, sympathy — all summed up in 
the word charity — are children of Love. Love mani- 
fests itself in Beauty, which itself is the result of Har- 
mony. 

"Any bad habits?" the business man asks of each 
new employe. The applicant may attempt to conceal 
his bad habits, but sooner or later they will disclose 
themselves in his work. 

Bad habits cannot be hidden any more than good 
habits can be hidden. Habits are written in our faces, 
on our bodies, in our work. 

Good habits win. Bad habits lose. 



fi 4 81 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

SELF-CONTROL 



MAN — the race of man — having developed evil 
(the Devil) in himself, by his own inverted 
thought — is subject to evil so long as he re- 
mains a subject, a slave. But man can free himself 
from slavery because he has in him the power of choice. 
Man can choose either good or evil. 

Through race instinct man is prone to passion, to 
anger, to jealousy, to hatred, to selfishness. His per- 
verted self goes the way of the flesh unless he— his 
better nature — restrains this race-self. 

With the help of the Spirit, material man develops 
self-restraint. He restrains his passions. He restrains 
his anger, his envy, his jealousy, his selfishness. 

Now, we have seen that inverted thought creates 
these negative qualities, these destructive qualities. 
The way, then, to rid ourselves of these bad qualities 
is to put good qualities—good thoughts— in their place. 
One thought drives out another. Thoughts come and 
go in a flash, but only one thought is in our minds at a 

[H9] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



time. Think good thoughts and bad thoughts fly away. 
Continued thought crystallizes into habit. Keep on 
thinking good thoughts and we develop good habits. 
Restrain bad thoughts, banish them forever, and we 
cultivate self-restraint and self-control which leads to 
good habits. 



[150] 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

GOOD FRIENDS 



MAN cannot fight the battle alone. He must 
have friends to help. God is man's best 
friend. But God's friends — good friends — 
are next best. 

Alone, man is lonely. With friends about him, man 
is friendly. 

Some birds — in cages — are singing in the corridor. 
They seem happy, as they sing. Yet they are lonely in 
their seclusion. I know they are lonely. Every eve- 
ning when they are taken out of their cages and placed 
in a room together to spend the night, what is the first 
thing they do? They fly to one another, snuggle to- 
gether as close as they can get, almost hug one another 
— and talk, talk in bird language. They seek friend- 
ship. 

Man cannot live alone. He must have friends. If 
he does not find good friends, he will find bad friends. 
Friends he must have. 

So, let us be careful of the friends we make. Good 



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LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



friends help us to develop our higher natures. Bad 
friends help us to develop our lower natures. 

Good friends are also an asset in business. "A man 
is known by the company he keeps." Many a man is 
discharged because he associates with bad friends. 

Be friendly. Be good friends. Be God's friends, 
ourselves, and we will attract good friends to us. 



[I9»] 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

HAPPINESS 



GOOD habits and good friends as surely lead to 
happiness as good leads to God. 
We are not all in perfect health, though we 
can be. We are not all wealthy, though we can be. We 
are not all leaders, though we can be. But we can all be 
happy with what we have and what we are, if we are 
striving to become better and to have more life]. 

Happiness is a state of mind — the condition a mind is 
in which is constantly striving to do more, to know 
more, to grow more, to live more, and to be more, yet 
recognizing the law of growth. 

Happiness is not in the lazy mind. Happiness is not 
in the impatient mind. Happiness is not in the jealous 
mind, the envious mind, the cruel mind, the criminal 
mind, the sinful mind, the sick mind. 

Happiness may be in a sick body, but the mind, the 
soul, is not sick. Bedridden invalids often develop 
a perfect state of happiness because their minds have 
found peace, have found God. 



[•53] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Happiness is in the minds of the poor more often 
than in the minds of the wealthy. Happiness is not 
dependent upon wealth, upon position, upon earthly 
power, upon any temporal or earthly thing. I fancy 
the Kaiser Wilhelm is the most unhappy man in the 
whole world to-day. 

Happiness is of the Spirit. Find God, talk with 
God, know God, affirm God, live God, and we will be 
happy no matter what the circumstances that surround 
us. 

Happiness is necessary to true success in business 
and in life, because its opposite, unhappiness, breeds 
those negatives which are forever warring against the 
Spirit — suspicion, doubt, fear, worry, discontent. 

Happiness leaves the mind free to create the con- 
structive things of life. Unhappiness blurs our vision, 
blunts our understanding, deadens our love, perverts 
the truth, distorts the right — destroys the true creative 
power. 

The happy worker is the successful worker, whether 
that worker sweeps out a stable, washes dishes, or does 
any so-called menial work. If the happy worker is 
striving to do more, to know more, to grow more, to 
live more and to be more, God will ask nothing more of 
him. God will keep him happy. 



[154] 



CHAPTER XL 



THRIFT 



IF God takes care of the happy, striving worker, 
why then has Thrift a place in our lives? 
"God will provide," we say. Yes, God will pro- 
vide, if we let Him create through us — let Him realize 
and manifest His perfect individuality. 

Jesus took no thought of the morrow, in the way 
of supplying his physical needs, because Jesus was the 
Christ — the perfect Man and the Divine Ideal. 

But we are not perfect. We are far from perfect. 
We are earthbound. We are living on the material 
plane. We must "look out" for the material things we 
need. We must labor. We must earn our living by 
the sweat of the brow. We must live physically before 
we can live Spiritually. And we live physically — in the 
fullness of our physical powers — only as we live Spiri- 
tually. 

But, "God does help those who help themselves." 
This is the law of the Spirit. The Spirit cannot mani- 
fest its own individuality unless man, the individual, 

[155] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



chooses to become a distributor of the Spirit. Man 
must help God, if God is to help man. God creates. 
Man distributes. 

Man also consumes. Man must produce, with the 
help of God's creation, all that man consumes. By 
producing, we mean bringing into form for the use 
of man. Some foods are "ready-made" by Nature for 
man's consumption — fruits, berries and the like. Other 
foods must be "produced" — put into proper form. 
Clothing must be "produced." Materials — wool, cot- 
ton, linen and silk — grow; but sheep must be bred, 
herded and sheared; cotton and flax must be planted 
and picked; silk-worms must be reared. 

Homes and factories and places of business must be 
"produced." Wood grows and iron is found in the 
earth, and brick clay is in yonder hill. But trees must 
be felled, the wood sawed and planed. Iron must be 
taken out of the ore and changed into steel. Bricks 
must be made and laid. 

All this is what we term production; mining, agri- 
culture, manufacturing, building. It is pro-ducing 
what God creates, with the aid of man — leading forth 
(as the Latin words pro and duceo mean) — leading 
forth the creative power of God. It is really distri- 
bution, although we call it production. It is man mani- 
festing his true state as a distributor. 

Because man is physical, as well as Spiritual, man 
must produce^ in order to live. Man must eat. He 
must be clothed. He must house himself, in order 

[156] 



THRIFT 

to live. This makes production a necessity to physical 
life. It forces man to become a distributor. It forces 
man to labor. It forces man to associate and co-oper- 
ate. So that labor, as well as life, is ordained of God. 
And physical labor is as sacred as mental labor or 
as Spiritual labor. All labor comes from the Spirit. 

But in the ascending scale of creation, we have seen 
that man, with mind, with intelligence, is on a higher 
plane than the animal. We have seen that the Master 
— the master-man, the Divine Image — is on a higher 
plane than material man. 

Therefore, man to perfectly manifest God, should 
give all the time he can, first to mental affairs and then 
to Spiritual affairs. First we develop understanding, 
then we develop Spirituality. 

Now, the less time we give to physical labor, the 
more time we shall have in our days to give to mental 
labor — to education; and the more time (and more 
understanding, through education) we shall have in 
our lives to give to Spiritual affairs. True, we should 
think God, and live God, in our physical and mental 
labor. We should take God into our work, into our 
workshop, into our business. But we can think God 
and know God and live God in a much more under- 
standing way if we have time to study and read and 
contemplate God in worship. 

This, then, in perhaps a round-about way, leads us 
to one purpose of Thrift ; to save waste. 

Creation wastes nothing. The tree dies, but it lives 

[157] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



again in new creation ; in the seed. The tree — the gen- 
eric tree — never dies. 

Waste comes only in distribution. Man— the dis- 
tributor — is the only waster. 

Even man is not a waster of Creation — for there is 
no waste in creation. Man is a waster of production ; 
a waster of the products of man. 

The law then follows — as man wastes, man must pro- 
duce more — in order to live physically. The more man 
wastes the more man must produce. The less man 
wastes the less man must produce. 

"But I have plenty," some one says, "I have more 
than I need." How about those who have less than 
they need? How do you know — to put it selfishly — 
how do you know that you will always have more than 
you need? What one individual wastes, another indi- 
vidual must produce. And the "chickens of waste" 
have a way of "coming home to roost." 

Even from a selfish, material viewpoint, waste is a 
loss to every individual — waste of time, waste of en- 
ergy, waste of money, waste of capacity, waste of op- 
portunity. And we have seen that the wise use of 
time, of energy, of money, of capacity, of opportunity, 
results in Creativeness — true creativeness. What we 
waste materially, we lose mentally and Spiritually. 

The Great War — the war for Right — is being waged 
out of the saving of waste — out of the Thrift of man- 
kind. We save men "here" to sacrifice them "there" — 
for Right. We save materials and food 



[158] 



THRIFT 

them "there" — for Love. We save time "here" to use 
it "there"— for Life. 

We are giving up millions of men and billions of 
money and years of time to wage a war — a necessary 
war. Suppose we could have devoted the labor, the 
sacrifice, the power of these millions of men, these 
billions of money and these years of time to educa- 
tion, to upbuilding, to construction instead of destruc- 
tion. What schools we could have organized! What 
hospitals we could have founded! What roads we 
could have built! What Spiritual power we could 
have awakened in the hearts of the people ! 

But "God moves in mysterious ways." The war, 
no doubt, was needed. It teaches many great lessons 
that we must learn. Already the war is resulting in 
more charity, in more love, in more understanding of 
Spiritual things, in more and better co-operation. 

The war is developing a greater Spirituality in man. 
It is causing man to think more of Spiritual things. It 
is bringing man closer to God. 

So even war — this greatest, crudest and most de- 
structive of all wars — is a blessing. And one of the 
war's blessings is a realization of the saving power of 
Thrift. 

After the war we will be more thrifty. After the 
war we will waste less. After the war we will save 
the products of man and the creations of Spirit. We 
will save more material things and thus know more of 
mental and Spiritual things. The war will not let us 

[159J 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



forget that the first purpose of Thrift is to eliminate 
waste. 

Another purpose of Thrift is to make man feel se- 
cure in his mind as to the future. "I must save up 
something for a rainy day," we say. 

Race-knowledge that sin and sorrow, sickness and 
suffering, loss of money and failure, are part and par- 
cel of our earthly existence will not let man — mortal 
material man — think otherwise than that "some days 
must be dark and dreary, some days the rain must 
fall." 

Quite naturally, the human mind dreads the future, 
unless the individual is prepared for it and safeguarded 
against it. 

"Put your trust in God, but keep your powder dry." 
"God helps those who help themselves." 

A feeling of insecurity in our minds is the breeder 
of all kinds of dangerous and destructive negatives. A 
feeling of insecurity produces dread and fear ; produces 
worry and sickness ; produces sin and sorrow ; produces 
hatred and crime ; produces suffering and death. 

A feeling of security opens the windows of life to 
hope, to faith, to cheerfulness, to charity, to love, to 
thought fulness of others, to happiness, to life — fuller 
and better life. "On a rainy day the bank book makes 
cheerful reading." 

The worker who has his little home paid for, the 
mortgage on the farm paid off, and money in the bank, 
is the cheerful worker, the happy worker, the produc- 



160] 



THRIFT 



tive worker. He has the contented mind. He reads 
and studies and thinks without worry or fear, because 
his mind lives in security. He grows in understanding 
and in Spirituality because his mind is free to contem- 
plate a higher life, a higher power. His mind is free 
to let the Creative Power Within manifest itself in all 
its glory, in all its fullness. 

Let the workers of the world store up a little prop- 
erty, a little wealth — through Thrift — and no false 
prophet can stir up discord and dissension among them. 

Security gives that peace of mind which is the be- 
ginning of wisdom, of Spirituality. Thrift brings se- 
curity of mind. 

But the highest purpose of Thrift is to develop 
character in the individual. 

Character comes from habit. Character makes the 
individual responsible. When the individual develops 
a habit of responsibility he becomes a man of char- 
acter. He takes a new place in the world. 

The worker of character — developed through Thrift 
— is the worker who is responsible, who begins to feel 
his responsibility, his importance in life, his own in- 
dividuality. 

Thrift puts courage into the heart of man. Thrift 
puts confidence into the mind of man. Thrift puts 
responsibility to God into the soul of man. 

The thrifty worker realizes that he is of some ac- 
count after all. He realizes that he has a work to do, 

[161] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



a duty to perform. He begins to feel within him the 
urge of that Creative Power for manifestation in in- 
dividual form. He feels that Power working within 
him, striving to get out of him — to get into his work, 
his life. And because he feels secure as to the future 
here on earth, the thrifty worker begins to feel a se- 
curity as to the world to come — he lets the Spirit work 
through him, leading him on and on, closer and closer 
to complete development — which is perfection. 

The way opens to the thrifty worker. New and 
higher work comes to him. New and better jobs arc 
given to him. More and more money comes into his 
pay envelope. More and more joy comes into his 
work, into his home, into his life. More and more 
hope and faith come into his heart. 

"All this sounds beautiful — is beautiful" — we say, 
"but how can I, having a big family, and receiving only 
a small wage — how can I cultivate habits of Thrift? 
I can do no more than keep the wolf from the door." 

"Stop feeding that wolf and you will stop waste" is 
the true answer — you will have something to save. 

Worry is a wolf. Fear is a wolf. Worry and fear 
so cloud our minds that we cannot do good work. We 
do only poor work and we receive poor pay. 

Banish worry and fear — by beginning to save, be it 
ever so little. Our work will grow better, and our pay 
will grow larger. Before we know it we are on the 
road to Thrift — the road to happiness. 

[162] 



THRIFT 

Force ourselves to save; assume an obligation that 
we cannot break. Take out life insurance. Buy a 
home — on the instalment plan. Join a building associa- 
tion. Put our pennies into the penny savings banks, 
Begin to save a little and we soon save much. Smoke 
fewer cigars a day — or none at all — and save tobacco 
money. Stop drinking liquor — save "booze" money. 

Everybody has some extravagance — even the poor- 
est man. Cut out the little extravagances, save the 
money, and through Thrift we will find and we grow 
in wealth, that these extravagances (when we can af- 
ford them) become necessities — as we are able, through 
Thrift, to live better. 

Thrift does not curtail life; it brings more life. 
Thrift does not cut down our pleasures, it adds to them. 
Thrift produces more, because it saves more. Thrift 
only cuts down waste — waste of the body, waste of the 
mind, waste of nature, waste of the Spirit. 



163] 



CHAPTER XLI 



PEACE AND CONTENTMENT 



AND now, with thrift, peace and contentment 
usually follow. 
We have seen that thrift gives more time 
and capacity for the development of the mind and the 
development of our Spiritual nature. With this de- 
velopment man cannot well help but become contented 
and at peace. 

Contentment is a great asset in business and in life. 
A truly contented worker — not a slavish nor lazy work- 
er — is a good worker. The slave is not contented in- 
wardly, although he may have the appearance of con- 
tentment outwardly. The lazy man may be content in 
a lazy sort of way, but that is not true contentment. 

True contentment means an equable state of mind 
conducive to good work ; the feeling of one "who does 
not needlessly pine after what is beyond his reach, nor 
fret at the hardships of his condition, at the same time 
earnestly striving to improve himself and his condi- 



i6 4 ] 



PEACE AND CONTENTMENT 



A "spirit of restless discontent" spurs us on in life 
and work, but "discontent" in this sense really means 
"eager desire" — desire to do more — to know more, to 
grow more, to be more. 

Contentment is that serenity of mind and poise of 
spirit which put body, mind and soul in perfect bal- 
ance, in perfect equilibrium, in perfect harmony. 

A truly contented soul is a beautiful soul. Content- 
ment shines out of the eyes, is seen in the smile, is 
manifested in the unfailing hospitality and good humor 
of such a man. He is "a prince among his fellows." 



[165] 



CHAPTER XLII 



A SENSE OF HUMOR 



WE have just spoken of humor — good humor. 
A sense of humor is absolutely necessary to 
the fullness of life. I know this from ob- 
servation. You know it. Everybody knows it — ex- 
cept the confirmed grouch. 

Just why humor is necessary in life is difficult to ex- 
plain. "A man is a stick without a saving sense of 
humor," we say, "a perfect stick." Perhaps the phrase 
"saving sense of humor" may help to explain the what 
and why of humor. Humor saves us from what? I 
think humor saves us from ourselves — from man's dis- 
torted, inverted or perverted self — from his mortal 
self. 

"Humor," says Lowell in "Study Windows," "in its 
first analysis is a perception of the incongruous, and in 
its highest development, of the incongruity between 
the actual and the ideal in men and life." 

A sense of humor, as I see it, is the recognition of 
inverted thought and the comprehension of its destruc- 
tiveness. 

[166] 



A SENSE OF HUMOR 



With a sense of humor we see ourselves as others 
see us. The picture is so ludicrous that we smile and 
laugh and begin to correct our faults. We are pom- 
pous, we are vain, we are vain-glorious, we are proud, 
we are over-dignified. And we have a fall — to bring 
us back to our real selves. We are then an object of 
humor, even to ourselves. A laugh often "saves the 
situation" and saves ourselves. 

A little touch of humor makes the whole world kin. 
We are frail, all of us. We are only mortals. And 
"what fools we mortals be," says Puck. We see 
things only through our earthly eyes. We sense things 
only through our earthly senses. We become swollen 
with self-importance. Suddenly old Mother Nature 
takes "a fall out of us," and brings us back to earth 
with a bump — with the saving grace of humor. 

Humor really is seeing things in their distorted as- 
pect. Man is distorted much of the time. We see man 
— ourselves — in this distorted aspect and we laugh. 
The laugh saves us from our false selves. 

True humor is thus constructive, creative, because it 
creates — what? Why, true humor creates a new man. 

Humor shows us the vanities of earthly life and 
prepares us to understand the verities of spiritual life. 

My wife is reading this. She says : "you have not 
made the subject very clear, but never mind, no mat- 
ter what humor is, it is" and that is enough. 

Yes, that is enough — to know that humor is. I pity 
the man without a "saving sense of humor." 



[167] 



COOPERATION 

CHAPTER XLIII 



SO far we have been analyzing man in a personal 
way. We have sketched the livingness of man 
as an individual, with only occasional side- 
journeys into collective life. 

Now we shall look at man in his collective aspect — 
in his association with his fellows. 

Man is a co-operative animal. Animals often help 
one another. A mate helps his mate. A mother bird 
helps her birdlings. But this is animal instinct. Some 
animals even work together, as the beaver, the ant, the 
bee. But animals as a class do not co-operate in an 
organized manner. 

Man is the only co-operative animal — co-operating 
in an organized way. Man is the only animal that truly 
organizes his co-operation because man is the only 
animal with understanding — with creative thought. 

Man's organization begins with the family. From 
the family comes the tribe — the community of present 
day living. From the community develops the village, 
the town, the city — specialized community organization. 
From the city arises the state. From the state arises 



[■68] 



A SENSE OF HUMOR 



the nation. From the nation arises the civilized world. 
Man co-operates in all these specialized organizations 
— else there would be no organization. 

People without co-operation fall apart. There is no 
cohesion. Man without co-operation falls apart — his 
triune nature of body, mind and spirit falls apart. 
Work without co-operation falls apart. A lonely work- 
er disintegrates — he is not constructive, not creative. 
Oh, yes, great works of art are conceived and created 
in solitude. But the worker is not alone. For his in- 
spiration he goes either to Nature or to human nature 
— to the rushing life of man. Or else he goes to God. 
A worker with God is not lonely. 

Now, God works with men — not alone with man. 
He is working in all men. Man, therefore, truly finds 
God in other men. The Spirij; is constantly manifest- 
ing Itself in the countless individuals of the world. 
Man, therefore, finds the multitudinous aspects of God 
in other men. 

Here we find the true glory of the Spirit — in our fel- 
lows, our fellow workers. Here, in our fellow work- 
ers, we find truth, we find love, we find wisdom, we 
find beauty, we find the Spirit. 

Co-operate with men, fashioned in the image and 
likeness of God, and we find God. Give our best to 
others and we receive in return the best that is in 
them. "Give and take, live and let live," is the doc- 
trine of co-operation." 

Co-operation is working together; not working only 



[169] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



in a collective body, but working together according to 
laws. 

In military parlance co-operation means "working 
together on signal." Military science explains what is 
to be done, what movement is to be made ; the Captain 
gives the signal, and the men carry out the order — 
the law. 

This takes away the sting that sometimes appears in 
boss-ship. "Why must I do what the boss says?" we 
cry out, "why cannot I do the thing in my own way ?" 
Because the boss calls us to work together in the best 
#ay. The boss knows the best way — or he would not 
be boss. He is not trying to "lord" it over us. He is 
not trying to "boss" us. He is merely co-operatively 
putting in motion the law, the truth, as it has been 
developed with relation to the particular work at hand. 

Co-operation multiplies man power. Ten men can 
pull more than one man — if they pull together at one 
time. The boss says, "ready, go," and the lumbermen 
pull the heaviest log. One man alone cannot pull the 
log. Ten men pulling at different times cannot pull 
the log, because one man alone cannot move it. But 
ten men pulling together at one time not only lift but 
move the log with ease. 

Co-operation not only improves individual work, 
through mutual helpfulness, but co-operation multi- 
plies individual work, and it multiplies it in a compound 
way — in creativencss. 

Not only can ten men create ten times as much as 

[170] 



CO-OPERATION 



one man, each man working separately, but ten men, 
working co-operatively, can create twenty and thirty 
times as much as one man. 

And ten men, working co-operatively with machinery 
— which is nothing more than men's minds working in 
co-operation — can create a hundred and a thousand 
times as much as one man. 

The first thing a worker learns when he enters busi- 
ness is that he "cannot do it all alone." He may be 
ever so good a workman ; he may have just come from 
a technical school or college where too often men re- 
ceive an exalted idea of themselves, thinking that in 
their knowledge they are "sufficient unto themselves" ; 
but when such a worker comes into a shop, into an or- 
ganization, into business, he is brought "down to earth" 
with a thud as he realizes that "he does not know it 
all," that there are other good workmen, and that if he 
wishes to bring out the best in himself — to compete 
with other good workers — he must co-operate with 
other workers. 

In business each man has a specialized work. Each 
branch of the work fits in with another branch. When 
each man does his duty and does his work in harmon- 
ious relation with the duty and work of all others har- 
mony results — constructive multiplied work. Team 
work wins. 

Now, who benefits through co-operation ? The boss, 
yes. The business, yes. But the individual benefits 
most of all. 

[I7i] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



The worker grows with his work — with his power 
of creativeness. Creativeness, we have just seen, grows 
with co-operation. The worker's pay, his material suc- 
cess, grows with co-operation. 

So that any way we look at co-operation — from a 
material, mental or spiritual viewpoint — co-operation 
pays. 

From the viewpoint of body alone, co-operation pays. 
It brings more bodily comforts and pleasures because 
it brings more income. 

From the viewpoint of mind, co-operation pays. It 
brings more leisure for the cultivation of mind ; more 
"tools" for use in mental creativeness (more knowl- 
edge and wisdom) ; more peace and contentment of 
mind resulting from the satisfaction in work well done. 

From the viewpoint of Spirit, co-operation pays. It 
helps the individual more fully to manifest Spirit in the 
individual and to manifest the wholeness of spirit in 
its unity. 

And here we reach an apparent paradox: the more 
closely men co-operate with one another the more they 
express their own individuality. But the paradox ex- 
plains itself when we remember that the more we live, 
the more of ourselves we live, the more completely we 
manifest the Spirit. Now, we live more and do more 
as we co-operate — one man helps another. When liv- 
ing and working in co-operation with our fellows, we 
are, therefore, expressing Spirit more completely, ex- 



CO-OPERATION 



pressing more completely the individuality of Spirit, 
expressing more completely our real selves, our indi- 
viduality. 

God's creation is harmonious, the whole always pre- 
serving a perfect balance of all its parts. Man's crea- 
tion should be harmonious, resulting in a perfect bal- 
ance of all industry and life. 

To perfect its wholeness in individual form is the 
ceaseless striving of the Spirit. Man — the individual — 
is manifesting Spirit in specialized, individualized 
form. But the Spirit never reaches its wholeness, its 
complete manifestation, until all individuals manifest 
the wholeness in themselves, in the unity of Spirit. 

Man never reaches efficient work until he truly co- 
operates with his fellows. Man never reaches creative 
work and creative life until he realizes and manifests 
his wholeness — his Oneness with Spirit — until he co- 
operates truly and perfectly with Spirit and with man. 

Co-operate with man. Co-operate with God. Suc- 
cess is bound to follow. 



[173] 



CHAPTER XLIV 



REVERENCE AND WORSHIP 



MAN co-operates with God only when he de- 
velops a reverent feeling in his work and 
lives in the Spirit of Worship. 

"Pulling a long face," keeping one's eyes on the 
ground, frowning at humor and laughter, scowling at 
innocent amusement, parading one's meekness — for- 
ever "preaching" as the term is popularly understood 
— this is not true reverence, it is hypocrisy. 

The reverent man is cheerful, friendly, playful. The 
most innocent creature in the world is a child — a child 
is playful. 

The reverent man, instead of withdrawing himself 
from life, enters more into life — physical, mental, 
spiritual. The reverent man lives more instead of less. 

The reverent man is tolerant, yet helpful ; he is 
meek, yet strong; he is good but not "goody-goody"; 
he is a preacher but a practiser, also. 

The reverent man has his physical appetites and 
passions. He has his physical pleasures. He has his 



['74] 



REVERENCE AND WORSHIP 



temptations and his sins. He has his sickness and his 
suffering. But he has the knowledge that he is striv- 
ing, with the aid of the Spirit, to live better, more in 
the image and likeness of God. 

Reverence is just this: living in recognition and in 
affirmation of God — living in His image and likeness as 
nearly as it is possible for human beings to live. 

Reverence is realizing what life is, and living life. If 
we realize that life is Spirit, that it is Good, Love, 
Truth, Wisdom and Beauty, we cannot be otherwise 
than reverent. We will always strive to be good, to be 
kind, to be true, to be wise, to be beautiful. 

The expression "Fear God," so generally misunder- 
stood, means to revere God; which means love God, 
know God, live God. 

If we know God and live God we shall have rever- 
ence for His works. If we know that we — man — are 
one of His works, we shall have reverence for our- 
selves — reverence for our whole selves ; reverence for 
the body, reverence for the mind, reverence for the 
soul. And if we have reverence for our complete self, 
which is made in the image and likeness of God, we 
shall have reverence for the Spirit. 

If we have reverence for Spirit we shall have rever- 
ence for all the attributes of Spirit. We shall have 
reverence not only for women and for children, which 
most of us have ; not only for churches and schools and 
hospitals ; not only for preachers and doctors ; but we 
shall have reverence for such abstract things as truth, 

[mi 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



love, honor, justice, mercy, honesty, righteousness, 
purity, temperance, beauty. We shall make these 
abstractions concrete by living them. 

We shall then grow in reverence for all men, bad 
and good. We shall see the true man within, no mat- 
ter how darkly he appears through the haze of sin 
and suffering. We shall try to "call out" the good in 
every man, to develop his better nature. We shall 
help him to put away his weakness and wickedness by 
strengthening his good qualities. Darkness flees before 
light. Sin disappears when righteousness appears. 
Weakness goes when strength comes. 

Positives kill negatives. The way to help an erring 
man is to help him to develop the positives in his na- 
ture. There is good in every man, however fallen, if 
we search for it. As a man's positives grow strong his 
negatives grow weak — finally disappearing. 

"I am my Brother." I am brother to all men. True 
brotherhood of men is the highest human reverence be- 
cause it recognizes the Oneness of God and His reflect- 
ion which is man. 

Worship follows from reverence. When we give 
reverence to something we worship that something. 

Worship is not a matter of form, but of the heart, 
of the soul. Prayer, however formal, ritualistic and 
orthodox, is not worship unless it comes from the 
heart, from the soul. 

Worship to be worship need not be open, and prayer 
need not be spoken. Inner worship and silent prayer 



[i 7 6] 



REVERENCE AND WORSHIP 



are the most forceful. Retire into the inner temple 
(into the inner sanctuary of the soul) and commune 
with God. This is the divine injunction. 

We go to church and worship in concert and that is 
good, because Spirituality is contagious ; because men 
in sympathy with one another help each other ; because 
combined thought (thought, the only creator) is strong- 
er than solitary thought in the power of suggestion; 
and because "going to church" sets a good example to 
all men, especially to growing children. But if we do 
not go to church we can worship also. 

"Work is worship," a great railroad president once 
said. Yes, work is worship — is "workship," as Thomas 
Tapper puts it in "Efficiency — Its Spiritual Source." 

If we carry worship — workship — and reverence into 
our every day living we are true children of God. 

REALIZING THE CREATIVE POWER IN LIVING IT 



We have now found the Power Within. 

We have analyzed the Power Within. 

There remains then to consider how the Power 
Within may be applied — in developing our lives. 

In this analysis we shall endeavor to show "The Way 
to Creativeness" in the individual. 

There is only one way, of course — the Way of 
Spirit. Those who have read this book so far must 



*77\ 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



realize that Spirit is the only Way of life. But we 
have attempted to analyze Spirit and to express its 
parts in terms of every day business and life. We have 
charted and discussed the qualities of Creativeness, as 
they manifest themselves in man's doing, knowing, 
growing, living and being. 

So far we have theorized, although we have tried to 
illustrate theory in practise. Now we shall endeavor 
to apply spirit, to apply it to practise, to make it usable 
in our life on earth. 

"Use Spirit !" some one may cry aghast. Yes, use 
Spirit — just that. Spirit wants to be used, to be de- 
veloped, to be manifested in the individual. This is 
the nature of Spirit — to realize itself. This is the 
longing of Spirit. This is the longing of the soul. 

To be more Myself is the urge of Spirit. To be more 
myself is the urge of man — the reflection of Spirit. 

"To be more myself" I must develop more of my- 
self. To develop more of myself I must develop more 
of Spirit. 

We are obeying the divine injunction when we "use 
God" in our business, in our lives. No one can read 
the Scriptures with understanding and deny to man the 
"use of God." 

But we can "use" God — we can have true inspira- 
tion — only if we do our part by preparing the technical 
machine of man through observation, reading, study, 
thought and practise. We cannot sit idly by and wait 
for inspiration to work; we must know how to work 



[178] 



REVERENCE AND WORSHIP 



and be ready and willing to work. Then, and only 
then, will the Creative power within work and create 
through us and for us. r 

Well, now, that point accepted, we can proceed rev- 
erently with the consideration of the Way to creative- 
ness in the individual; the way to manifest God, to 
realize God, to use God, to live God, in business and 
life. 



[179] 



CHAPTER XLV 



CREATIVE DOING 



THIS is man's job— with the aid of Spirit. 
Again we begin with the first step in life — the 
first baby-step — we begin with DOING. To do 
anything well what must we first do ? Why, we must 
first analyze what is to be done. We must know. 

"But I thought you said we must do before we 
know," exclaims the reader. So we must. But to do 
a thing well, to do a thing creatively, we must know 
that thing in itself and in its relations to other things 
which affect it. We must know the thing in its en- 
tirety. 

We are now considering not the qualities of creative- 
ness. We are considering the way to use those quali- 
ties in creating. We are speaking in terms of action. 
We are in motion, we are "on our way." 

Turn back to page 45, and read again the chart 
of the Way to Creativeness. Classified under DOING 
we see that these are the steps to take : 
1. Analyse. 



[180] 



CREATIVE DOING 



2. Plan our work, 

3. Work our plan. 

4. Check-up. 

Analysis is the beginning of all knowledge. What 
do I want to do? Why do I want to do? How do I 
do it creatively? This is analysis by the "what, why 
and how" system. 

Unless we know what we want to do, we do our 
work without organization, without system. Such work 
is wasteful because it is unorganized, disorganized. If 
a carpenter did not know whether he was to make a 
table or a chair, and mixed the two, he would turn out 
a hybrid, a mongrel. 

Unless we know why we are doing a certain thing 
our work is without purpose, without real understand- 
ing, and cannot develop into true creativeness, to th« 
highest point of creativeness. 

The "why" of a thing puts soul into it, it puts cour- 
age and Spirit into the worker. Blind workers — blind 
to the Spirit of the work, to the why of the work-— are 
notoriously poor workers. Get into the Spirit of work 
and the Spirit will get into us — the Creative Spirit. 

Knowing what we are doing, why we are doing, 
there remains only to know the "how" of doing— how 
can I best do the thing that is to be done. This is 
exactly what we are considering now — seeking the way 
to creativeness ; the way to develop the creative power 
in the individual, the way to "use God," to manifest 
God. 



[181] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



ANALYZING OUR WORK 



The first step is analysis. We must analyze our 
work. We must analyze our record. We must analyze 
ourselves. We must analyze life. We must analyze 
Spirit. 

"That's a tall job," we say. So it is. Life itself 
is a tall job. But we have a lifetime to make this an- 
alysis in. We have time to analyze slowly, thoughtful- 
ly, taking up one thing at a time, proceeding step by 
step. 

We have traveled together pretty far in this book, 
in the analysis of Creative life. The reader ought to 
have understanding enough now to proceed on his own 
initiative — thus proving himself a man. We must not 
forget that no one else can do for us, can know for us, 
can grow for us, can live for us. We must do, know, 
grow and live for ourselves. 

So, let's up and at it. Let us analyze our work. Let 
us understand our job. Let us realize our job. Let 
us live our job — make the job our life. 

Set down on paper what our work is. Ask ourselves 
(and answer ourselves) why our work is — why we are 
doing this particular job — the purpose of the work. 
Plan how we can do our work better, more efficiently, 
more creatively — how we can produce more, create 
more — and thus live more. 

[182] 



CREATIVE DOING 



PLANNING OUR WORK 



We are now taking the second step along the way to 
creativeness. We are planning our work. 

We are scheduling our work — putting it in definite 
shape on paper ; putting it — and ourselves — on a time 
schedule. 

"I have so much to do, I have so much time to do it 
in" — only planning and working on a time schedule will 
accomplish the utmost we can do. 

So, planning our work is the second step on the way 
to creativeness. 

But planning is not doing, it is only planning. 

So, the next step on the way to creativeness is: 
working our plan, 

WORKING OUR PLAN 



What is the use of planning our work if we do not 
work our plan — put it into practise, into action? 

We put our plan into practise when we begin to work 
according to plan on a time and method schedule. 

The railroad has its passenger trains on time sched- 
ule. They do not arrive on time unless they are des- 
patched on time — not always then. But trains — and we 



[183] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



— will more surely "arrive" on time if despatched on 
time. 

Now we "are off." We are on a time schedule. We 
are working our plan. But the question remains : how 
and when will we arrive? How well will the job be 
done? How promptly? How much more skill have I 
developed in doing the job? 

Well, let's see, we'll check-up the job. Thus we ar- 
rive at the fourth step on the "way to Creativeness" — 
checking-up. 

CHECKING-UP 



"Checking up" is following up to see that the work 
is done, that it is done creatively. If every worker 
were perfect there would be no need of "checking-up." 
Because no worker is perfect — and never will be — all 
shops, all businesses, must "check-up" the work as it 
goes through the organization. 

We must not feel offended when some one checks up 
our work. We should "beat them to it" — check up 
our work ourselves, check up ourselves. 

Just as some one must check up us, so we must 
"check up the other fellow." 

The "follow-up system" in lalesmanship and in busi- 
ness, and the "check-up" system in shop work, in manu- 
facturing, are vitaj parts of efficiency, of Creativeness. 



[184] 



CREATIVE DOING 



Analyze. Then plan. Work the plan. Then check- 
up. These are the steps that lead to creative doing. 

Suppose we have a lesson right here and now, "be- 
tween ourselves," in creative doing, in analysis — the 
part analysis plays in creative doing. 

Let's analyze ourselves. Let's see if we have ready 
the efficient man-machine through which Spirit may 
create. 

All right. In analyzing ourselves we "take stock" 
of ourselves. Lay the chart of Creativeness before our 
eyes. Now we "take stock" of the qualities there 
enumerated. 

"I think I have 90 per cent, of health — how much 
have you?" "Why, I am well all the time," you re- 
ply. "I guess I have 100 per cent health." 

"Are your sure," we ask — "are you 100 per cent, effi- 
cient in health, strength, energy, endurance? Could 
you not be stronger? Could you not be 'more fit?' 
Can't you develop more energy — more endurance ? Are 
you 'doing your best' every minute you work, every 
time you work, and at everything you work?" 

"Oh, well," you break in, "I guess if you put it that 
way, I am not 100 per cent, healthful — probably not 
90 per cent." 

We don't "put it that way." Truth puts it that way. 
Law puts it that way. Understanding puts it that way. 
We must analyze accurately, searchingly, completely — 
according to truth, law, understanding. 

Now, in this searching way, this complete way, we 



[18s] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



run our eyes over all the qualities of Creativeness, as 
shown on the chart and as we have considered them. 
We "size up" ourselves, take our own measure. 

Then we begin to see what sort of fellows we are, 
what our failings are, what our strength is. Then we 
are ready to build — to build up ourselves ; to take the 
next step ; planning, as we have already outlined plan- 
ning. 

Let us not try to analyze ourselves "all in a mo- 
ment or two," or we will get into a maze, a "fuddle." 
We can travel just as fast as we understand. 

When we grow tired analyzing ourselves — or grow 
"blue" as we find our weaknesses — we should turn to 
an analysis of the work we are doing. What is my 
work, why is my work, how is my work ? 

By analysis we see how our work depends upon 
ourselves. Sick work comes from a sick worker. 
Weak work comes from a weak worker. We perfect 
our work by perfecting ourselves as much as we can. 

We perfect ourselves by knowing ourselves, by real- 
izing our place and work in divine creation, by know- 
ing and affirming that we are the reflection and mani- 
festation of Spirit, by knowing God and living God, by 
letting His Creative Power — the Power Within — work 
through us, the individual. 

Thus creative knowing comes from creative doing. 
And creative doing comes from creative knowing. 



fi86] 



CHAPTER XLVI 



CREATIVE KNOWING 



CREATIVE knowing evolves from the follow- 
ing processes, as will be seen from reading 
the chart of the "Way to Creativeness." 

1. Asking questions. 

2. Adapting ourselves. 

3. Standardising. 

4. Using common sense — which is largely intuition. 
"Asking questions" is taking counsel in order to 

learn, to have understanding. 

We can ask questions inwardly or outwardly. We 
can ask the Spirit — our intuition — our conscience; or 
we can ask men, we can ask books, we can ask Nature. 

Suppose we ask all these sources of knowledge — 
then shall we receive much. The naturalist asks Na- 
ture, and receives much knowledge. The scientist asks 
matter— and learns much. The philosopher asks 
mind. The social investigator asks man. 

The creative worker and liver asks all of these 
sources of inspiration: matter, Nature, man, mind, 



[187] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Spirit. He asks questions within and without. He is 
always asking questions. He is a human interroga- 
tici point. 

1 he creative worker reads and studies, talks and 
ar^des, lives and learns — as he works and lives each 
day. True education — creative education — unites the 
head, the hand and the heart ; develops all these powers 
together. 

Some day schools will become workshops ; work- 
shops will become schools ; churches and schools and 
workshops will all join hands, combining themselves 
into one — into one form. The worker will become the 
student-worker, the preacher-student-worker. All will 
become one as man realizes the Oneness of Spirit and 
the reflection of the Spirit — which is Man : the whole- 
ness of life. 

But until this condition arrives — this Utopia — we 
find ourselves surrounded by conditions that prevent 
our doing what we feel we ought to do. 

"Man's hands are tied by his environment," we say. 
Well, who made man's environment? Not God, but 
man, himself. Man makes his own environment — the 
conditions that surround him. Environment is simply 
thoughts in concrete form. 

If man makes environment by his thoughts, then 
by his thoughts also man can unmake environment, 
when it is bad, can unmake conditions when they 
oppress. Man can change conditions, with the help 
of God. 



riss] 



CREATIVE KNOWING 



But while man is striving to "change conditions," to 
make his environment better, he must go on living ; man 
can't stop living. He must go on living and working 
under the conditions that confront and surround him. 

Man, must, therefore, adapt himself to untoward 
conditions, until he can change them. 

We adapt ourselves to physical conditions easily 
enough. When winter comes we put on heavier cloth- 
ing. When summer arrives we change to lighter cloth- 
ing. But we balk at adapting our minds and our 
hearts. 

Man has made vast improvement in hygiene, in sani- 
tation, in city-planning of all kinds. Man has made 
little advance in the hygiene and sanitation of mind; 
in mind and soul cleansing and planning. 

Yet we know that thought creates. If we get our 
thought right everything material will be right. 
Thought changes conditions. Only thought can 
change them. But thought also can restrain our feel- 
ings, our emotions, while these conditions are being 
changed. 

ADAPV OURSELVES 



Adapting ourselves to Truth is the second step of 
"knowing," on the way to Creativeness. 
As we adapt our minds to Truth — adopt Truth as 



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LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



our polar star — we change conditions that surround us ; 
we make conditions our slave instead of our master. 
Perhaps a better phrase is : "we make conditions our 
friend." There should be no "slave and master" in 
the development of man. 

We make conditions our friend. We surround our- 
selves with a hospitality of our own making. "As we 
look at things so they are," I said to myself in a 
street car to-day. A woman had just remarked: "I 
suppose there will be no Christmas this year" (war 
year). "No, I suppose not," said a man who was with 
her. Christmas was thus spolied for two people — and 
their families — by their thoughts. If these people had 
said to themselves : "We're going to have a fine Christ- 
mas this year," they would have had it, war or no war, 
taxes or no taxes, draft or no draft, secrifice or no 
sacrifice. 

Christmas, as everything else, is in the mind. Get a 
new viewpoint, and things change, aspects change. Get 
a positive point of view — and morbid negatives fly out 
the window. "It's the songs ye sing, and the smiles ye 
wear, that's amaking the sun shine everywhere," says 
Riley. Sun scatters clouds. Light dispels darkness. 
Truth kills error. Spirit re-creates all, even distressing 
destructive conditions of man's own weaving. 

With Spirit's aid man re-creates his environment — 
puts an atmosphere about himself that positively helps 
rather than negatively hampers his creativeness in work 
and in life. 



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CREATIVE KNOWING 



STANDARDIZE 



There is one best way of doing everything and any- 
thing. The best way is called the standard way ; it be- 
comes a standard for all to follow. 

We do not get very far on the way to Creativeness 
unless we find the best way to do our work, the best 
way to live. We must standardize our work, standard- 
ize our methods, standardize our play, standardize our- 
selves, standardize our lives. 

There is one standard for all these things : the stan- 
dard of Spirit : the divine Standard. Jesus, the Christ, 
set the standard for all men. Jesus lived his life and 
did his work by the standard of truth, of love, of wis- 
dom, of beauty. 

The beautiful (harmonious) way, the wise way, the 
kind way, the true way is always the standard way. 
Work this way out for ourselves in terms of the quali- 
ties of Creativeness, and we find the standard way in 
whatever we do. 

The short cut from our home to the railroad station 
may be through another man's property, over his gar- 
den. That would not be the kind way because kind- 
ness (love) is ever thoughtful of the rights of others. 
The short cut to greater production may be by working 
our employes twelve and fourteen hours a day. That 
is not the kind way, the way of love. 



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LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



The short cut to righteousness — the standard way — 
may sometimes involve cruelty — as in this Great War. 
This is not God's way, it is man's way: his only way 
(so far as the distorted mind of man may see) out of 
the entanglements man has woven around himself. 

Normally — and not abnormally — the way of truth, 
the way of love, the way of wisdom, the way of beauty, 
is the way man must follow, in his life and work to 
find God — to truly manifest Spirit in the individual. 

USE COMMON SENSE 



In finding this way — this standard way — we must use 
common sense. 

What is common sense ? It is the sense that is com- 
mon to all mankind. 

Common sense is the stored-up wisdom of the world, 
manifesting itself in books, in talk, in axioms, in prov- 
erbs, in laws, in rules, in regulations, in race intuition. 

The common law of England is a practice based on 
the common doings, the common sense of the Anglo- 
Saxon race from time immemorial. 

Moses embodied common sense in the Ten Com- 
mandments. Man, not so wise as Moses, a prophet, 
embodies common sense in multitudinous tomes of law, 
in state and national statutes more often confusing 
than clearing. But all law is in reality based upon the 
Ten Commandments. 



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CREATIVE KNOWING 



When we run against a snag in our work we use 
common sense. When we don't know just what to do, 
we use common sense. When we are puzzled as to 
what is the right thing to do, we use common sense. 
We call upon the common wisdom of the world in our 
emergencies. 

This resort to man's common sense helps us out of 
many difficulties. But sometimes it leaves us "high 
and dry" in an agony of despair. 

There is one kind of sense we can call upon without 
any fear of failure — the sense of Spirit — which is real 
intuition. Call upon God in our dilemma and we are 
always guided aright. We are led out of the wilder- 
ness, no matter how dense it may be. 

Call upon God, lean upon God, question the Spirit, 
ask for divine guidance — and we shall be shown the 
way, the way to Creative Living. 

God never fails. Man only fails. 



[193] 



CHAPTER XLVII 



CREATIVE GROWING 



CREATIVE growth, of course, proceeds out of 
creative knowing and creative doing. Here 
again, in growth, we find certain steps that 
must be taken. These steps are 
i. Set a goal. 

2. Strive to reach the goal. 

3. Discipline ourselves. 

It is obvious that if we wish to go anywhere, to 
get anywhere, we must set a goal. To go, we must 
have some place to go to. To grow, we must have 
something to grow up to. 

By asking questions we learn. Adapting our minds 
to truth we find truth. Standardizing our knowledge, 
our methods, ourselves, our lives, by using the common 
wisdom of the world — common sense — and by travel- 
ing in the light of Spirit, we find the path. 

Now, when the path is open, we get somewhere by 
setting a goal, towards which we travel to the best of 
our ability. The runner wins his race by setting a 



ti94l 



CREATIVE GROWING 



goal — the tape he wishes to breast in the shortest time. 
The business man wins success by setting a goal — the 
amount of business he wishes to secure in a given 
amount of time — year by year, day by day. 

In setting a goal we form ideals in our mind. We 
create desire. We picture the goal in our minds. This 
is what is meant by the saying: "if we desire a thing 
strongly enough, if we concentrate on our desire, what 
we desire will come to us." 

The object of our desire will come to us if we 
standardize our desire according to truth, love, wisdom 
and beauty. Then we secure the aid of Spirit. Then 
we aid Spirit and Spirit aids us. 

But if we desire something that is not good, not in 
the spirit of love, not true, not wise, we will not fulfill 
our desire, we will not reach the goal. Then we set 
up a false desire, a false goal. 

So, we must set a true goal. And we must set con- 
tinually a new goal, raising it higher and higher as we 
reach a higher spiritual plane in our lives. 

As we climb the mountains, the higher mountains 
across the valley seem to rise higher and higher with 
us. God is on the high mountain. God always grows 
higher and higher as we climb higher and higher, help- 
ing man to climb. 

Set our goal high, so that we must strive hard to 
reach it. Then set a new higher goal. Thus step by 
step we climb. Thus step by step we reach higher 



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LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



planes of knowledge, of wisdom, of understanding, of 
skill, of work, of love, of beauty, of life. 

Man can walk, he can climb, he can rise above the 
mountain in an airplane, but every step of the way is 
taken step by step. It required man 1900 years since 
the birth of Christ to rise like a bird, in an airplane, 
and the airplane was evolved step by step out of 
the knowledge, skill and ingenuity of man. 

To reach the heights we must strive with all our 
power, physical, mental and spiritual — taking a step 
at a time, and only a step at a time. 

Striving is an effort of the will. Striving is an effort 
of the Spirit — to manifest itself completely in the in- 
dividual. But the will puts man into action. So we 
find that to grow in the creative way, to climb the cre- 
ative road, we must discipline ourselves — to do and to 
restrain. 

We must do the creative work of Spirit. 

We must restrain the inverted thought of man. 

Most men restrain the Spirit and give the body full 
leash. This is the wrong way to grow. The right 
way to grow is to give the Spirit full rway, and to 
restrain the perverted, or inverted, impulse of the flesh. 

If we give our bodies full rein when they are func- 
tioning according to the law of Spirit, the physical and 
material will carry on the work of God. Then the 
body becomes truly sacred, truly Spirit. 

But we must restrain the body, the flesh, the earthly 
mind, when its urge is towards negative things, towards 



196] 



CREATIVE GROWING 



error, towards the opposites — the negatives of truth, 
of love, of wisdom, of beauty. 
Affirm God. Deny the Devil— evil. 



[197] 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

CREATIVE LIVING AND BEING 



ON our "way to Creativeness" we have now 
reached the milestones of creative doing, cre- 
ative knowing, and creative growing — always 
finding as we reached each milestone that another 
loomed ahead — more doing, more knowing, more 
growing. 

"We have been going 'round in circles, then, never 
getting anywhere," one may say. 

Yes, we have been getting somewhere. We have 
been going 'round in circles, but those circles them- 
selves have been going 'round a big mountain — and 
each circle was above the other — higher up. 

In this manner all mountains are climbed. The road 
— the way — always circles around in gradual incline, 
doubling and redoubling on its tracks, but always 
mounting higher, until the summit is reached. 

What is this mountain we are climbing? 

It is the mountain of life. 

And what is at the top ? 

Complete creative livingness. 

The goal which man must set before him is the goal 



1981 



CREATIVE LIVING AND BEING 



of full creative livingness — the complete manifestation 
of Spirit in the individual. 

LIVING IN MUTUALITY 

How can man reach this goal of full creative living- 
ness? 

Creative living, we have seen, is living the spirit of 
God (good) within man. This calls for co-operation 
between man and God. 

But the spirit of God is in all men. Unity is one of 
the characteristics of Spirit. The Spirit is one and 
indivisible. To reach full creative livingness, to pre- 
serve the unity of the Spirit, there is a spiritual call 
to man to live in harmony and unity with other men 
as with God. 

True co-operation is based on mutuality. 

The family lives in mutual accord of its members. 
Mutual happiness, helpfulness and responsibility are 
the foundations of the family. 

Friends live in mutual accord. They share each 
other's pleasures and burdens. Good friends — God's 
friends — live in harmony and accord with one another 
— in true mutuality. 

Mutuality is the free interchange of Spirit among 
men. It is reciprocity — giving and receiving; giving 
one's best and receiving the best in others. It is shar- 
ing with others — sharing their burdens, their sorrows, 
as well as their successes and joys. 

People living in mutuality work and live happily to- 

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LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



gether. They help and support one another. This 
unity and harmony of labor and of life result in con- 
structive, creative living. 

True mutuality is living the Fatherhood of God in 
the brotherhood of man. God does not live alone. He 
lives in man — in men — in us. Man cannot live alone. 
He must live with God among men. To live with God 
among men man must live in mutuality with men — in 
truth, in love, in wisdom, in harmony. 

True mutuality in its very nature — "living God 
among men" — demands of men fair play to all for the 
good of all. 

True mutuality demands of men justice and honor. 
It demands equality of rights, of opportunity, of lib- 
erty — the qualities of Truth. 

True mutuality demands charity, mercy, sacrifice — 
the qualities of love, as expressed in fraternity — living 
together as brothers. 

True mutuality demands harmony and understand- 
ing — qualities of beauty and wisdom, as expressed in 
the life and work of man — of man among men. 

Mutuality shares interests and benefits and imposes 
responsibilities. 

Mutuality of interests and responsibilities is the 
foundation of the modern corporation, of mutualized 
business, of social and industrial organizations. It is 
the foundation of organized labor, of schools, of chari- 
ties, of government. It is the foundation of society, 
itself. 



[200] 



CREATIVE LIVING AND BEING 



Mutuality does not relieve individual responsibility. 
It adds to it and enlarges it. It makes the individual 
an integral part of all society. It makes him an equal, 
in rights and liberty, with his fellow man. It elevates 
the individual to his rightful place as brother to man 
and son to God. 

The hope of civilization, of religion itself, is based 
on the universal acceptance of mutuality as a life prin- 
ciple. 

And strangely enough the acceptance of the spirit 
of mutuality among men and among peoples is coming 
not through the efforts of the church, which has always 
preached this doctrine, but through the business rela- 
tions of men with men. 

Business, as we know the term — the business of 
living — arises from the God-given physical necessities 
of man. God created the physical world. He created 
man with physical attributes. There must be a deep 
underlying purpose in creating these physical needs of 
man. We were not cursed in the Garden of Eden. We 
are not cursed with labor. Food is not merely to sus- 
tain life. We are blessed with labor. We are blessed 
with toil, with struggle, with temptation. The blessing 
of these things is that they force us to live with one 
another in the daily intercourse of our work. By living 
with one another in mutuality we refine our natures, 
we refine our bodies, we purify the spirit, we cleanse 
ourselves in the waters of life. This is the sacred mis- 
sion of business — to lead men to live in mutuality. 

[201] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Even the awful war now devastating Europe is part 
of the evolution that will bring this better day to all 
mankind. From this war will come a new conception 
of co-operation — of mutuality; co-operation not only 
among people of one country, one race, one nation, 
one language, but co-operation among all the peoples of 
the earth — unselfish, helpful, kindly, mutual co-opera- 
tion. This co-operation will come because through our 
physical needs we will learn that we can live our lives 
with happiness to the individual only by working and 
living with one another in understanding and peace. 
And through learning this physical lesson we will learn 
the higher mental, moral and spiritual lesson that mu- 
tuality is the foundation of creative living. 

When men live in mutuality they do not harm one 
another, they do not steal from one another, because 
they realize that one cannot harm another without 
harming himself, that one cannot steal from another 
without stealing from himself. 

Mutuality makes men brothers to themselves. 

LIVING THE FAITH 



We are now far on the road of creative living. We 
have the goal in our eyes and in our mind : fullness of 
life,. We desire more life. We desire to live more. 
We desire to express our individuality as fully as 
possible. 



r**i 



CREATIVE LIVING AND BEING 



We realize that through co-operation with our fel- 
low workers we create more and express our indi- 
viduality more fully. 

We realize the true origin of Creativeness — that it 
comes from God, from Spirit; that it operates in us 
fully when we live in mutuality with mankind. 

Yet, even with this general recognition of the law 
of life, a doubt often arises — can Spirit create in me? 
"I am such a poor, weak mortal," we say, "Spirit can- 
not work in me." 

"Oh, ye of little faith !" Christ again and again re- 
buked the wise men for their lack of faith. The un- 
wise, in the simplicity of their natures, have simple 
faith. With wisdom comes doubt. 

"Well then, I can know too much — I would better 
stop trying to understand," you say. Yes, we can know 
too much, if knowledge does not lead to understanding. 
We can never understand too much. With understand- 
ing comes perfect faith. 

Blind faith — faith without understanding — carries 
man far along the road of Creativeness, but perfect 
faith — faith with understanding — carries man the 
whole way. 

Most of man's failure — failure to do more, to know 
more, to grow more, and to live more — comes from 
lack of faith. The road is hard. The burden is heavy. 
The goal seems farther and farther away. We grow 
tired. We grow weak. We become dispirited, dis- 
couraged. "Oh, what's the use ?" we say. We lose our 



[203] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



faith — and then nearly all is lost. We lose faith in our- 
selves. We lose faith in our work. We lose faith in 
men. We lose faith in God. Then, indeed, the Way 
is dark. 

But let some good friend come to us — some friend 
who has faith, who keeps the faith, who lives the faith 
— let this good friend come to us, take us by the hand, 
lead us gently out of our despair, put faith back into 
our hearts by patiently explaining again and again the 
"way of life," the purpose of life, the creativeness of 
life. Then the joy of creative life comes back into us. 
The joy of living, of doing, of knowing, of growing — 
the joy of Spirit — comes back to us, with the reappear- 
ance of faith in our souls. 

Faith regained is often stronger than original faith. 
When we lose a thing then only do we realize its value. 
Water, water is everywhere — it seems valueless. But 
take water away from us, and in our agony of thirst 
we cry out for water. Take faith away from us and in 
our agony of doubt we cry out for faith. 

Faith is knowing God, affirming God, living God 
among men — letting Spirit manifest through us its 
complete individuality ; letting Spirit create in our own 
creative work. 

With faith we shall know all, do all, be all. With 
faith we can do anything that is true, anything that is 
good, anything that is beautiful — doing it as we grow 
in the fullness of faith, in the fullness of life. 

With faith nothing daunts us, nothing stops us. With 



[204] 



CREATIVE LIVING AND BEING 



serenity of faith in the Spirit we travel contentedly 
the "Way of Creativeness," climbing the mountain of 
life ever in heightening circles, confident that in the 
fullness of time we shall reach the fullness of life ever- 
lasting. 

But we must do more than have faith — we must 
show our faith in our works, in our deeds. We must 
live our faith. We must make our work our life. We 
must live our work. 

LIVING OUR WORK 



We must make our work our life. We must live our 
work. 

Work then becomes not a means to an end but the 
end itself ; not a necessary evil but the supreme good. 

Constructive work — true creativeness — represents 
the complete development of the individual in fully un- 
selfish Spirit. 

Man's work is to live in the image and likeness of 
God. Man lives in the image and likeness of God only 
when he opens his soul to God and permits the realiza- 
tion of the divine ideal — permits and helps Spirit to 
manifest itself completely in the individual. This is 
each man's job. It is my job, it is your job. So work 
that our lives become creative in their fullness. So 
live that our work becomes creative in its fullness. 



[205] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Work and life, thus, become synonymous. As we 
work we live. As we live we work. And as we work 
and live we become. 

Our work becomes our lives. Our lives become our 
work. 

Work is the expression of man's self in material 
form. Life is the expression of Spirit in individual 
form. The two — work and life— are alike as a son 
is like his father. Work is the son of man. Man is 
the son of God. 



[206] 



CHAPTER XLIX 



INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 



AS man finds his work, as he finds that his work 
is his life, as he finds that the work of life — 
the business of life — is to manifest Spirit com- 
pletely through his own individuality — to individualize 
Spirit in all its fullness — then man finds perfect free- 
dom, perfect liberty. 

Perfect liberty is the earthly urge, the cosmic urge 
and the Spiritual urge that keeps man everlastingly "at 
it" — the desire of the soul to be free. 

Everybody wants to be free — free to do, free to 
know, free to grow, free to live, free to be. But few 
people realize, that while we are free to do as we 
please, we must take the consequences of what we do. 

Emerson's Essay on "Compensation" explains this 
truth, mentally. Troward's "The Word and the Law" 
explains it both mentally and spiritually. 

Man is free to speak the "word," but once spoken, the 
"law" steps in and carries things to their logical con- 
clusion. The "word" — man's volition, his power of 



[207] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



choice — is variable. The "law" — God's plan — is as 
fixed as the stars in their courses, as the rising and 
setting of the sun. 

Individual man has liberty to choose, else he would 
be a beast, not a man. But once man chooses and puts 
into being his choice, the results of that choice follow 
according to the fixed laws of cause and effect and 
compensation. 

A man chooses to kill. He does kill. And the law 
is after him hot-foot. Even though the law as an 
institution fails to find him, the man's own conscience 
(law in his mind) brings him to a sense of justice 
(which is law). He gives himself up eventually to the 
police, or he kills himself, which is an act of confes- 
sion. "Murder will out." 

Man cannot escape the consequences of his actions. 
We do good and good results to us. We do evil and 
evil results to us. 

This is not the theory of predestination — that all 
things that do happen to us are predestined. It is the 
putting into practise of all this book teaches; that 
Thought alone creates ; that constructive thought cre- 
ates constructive things for us ; that destructive thought 
creates destructive things. 

Whatever we think, whatever we do, that we be- 
come according to law. We cannot change the result 
of our thoughts, of our actions. But we can change 
our actions by changing our thoughts and thus change 
the final result to us. 



[208] 



INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 



Liberty and law are not antagonistic, so long as 
liberty follows the law of primary, all-originating 
Spirit or Thought, whose attributes are life, truth, 
righteousness, wisdom, love, beauty and harmony. 

True liberty conforms to the law of the universe, 
because true liberty is the unfolding, the development, 
the manifestation of the law of Thought. 

When license is mistaken for liberty, then true lib- 
erty dies. Man runs counter to the law. He becomes 
a slave of his inverse action, his inverted thought. To 
do what I want to do — right or wrong, good or bad, 
beautiful or ugly — is not liberty. It is license, and 
license ends in slavery. 

Man is free in that he has the power to choose good 
or evil. This power of choice is what makes him man 
instead of animal. 

"If I am free to choose, why then cannot I choose 
the wrong if I find it more pleasurable?" You can 
choose wrong, but you will not find wrong more pleas- 
urable than right. This is the answer to man's per- 
verted desire for license. 

Evil leads to slavery. Slavery leads to passion, to 
hatred, to anger, to envy, to jealousy, to sickness, to 
sin, to death, because evil is the opposite, the negative 
of Good — the denial of Good — of God. 

Now, if the fulfilment of man's life is the fulfilment 
of God's life — as we know it is — we must find freedom 
in living the principles of God — of good. We must 
find slavery in living the principles of evil — of Devil. 



[209] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



True Creativeness, then, positive creativeness — let- 
ting that "Power Within" flow through us — leads to 
liberty and life. 

Liberty is found in creative living in accordance with 
Truth, Love, Beauty, Wisdom. 

Liberty leads to the fullness of life — to the fullness 
of BEING. 

This brings us to the final chapter : "Living the Cre- 
ative Life in Its Fullness." 



[210] 



CHAPTER L 

LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS 



NOW we have arrived at the culmination of 
creativeness — the accumulation to its perfect 
fullness. 

Since life is everything and nothing else is, creative- 
ness — the expression of life — can culminate only in 
the fullness of life — of being. 

Since life is Spirit, and Spirit is the only Creative 
Power, then creativeness — the manifestation of Spirit 
in the individual — can culminate only in the full ex- 
pression of Spirit in man. 

Since Spirit is Truth, Love, Wisdom, then every- 
thing that Spirit creates through man is good, is true, 
is lovely, is beautiful. What is not good, not true, 
not lovely, not beautiful is man's creation, not God's. 

We have reached these conclusions step by step. We 
began where every man must begin — with the child's 
"who," "what," "why," and "how." "Who is that?" 
the child asks. "What is that?" "What is that man 



[211] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



doing?" "What must I do?" "Why can't I do it the 
other way?" "How am I to do it right, if this is 
wrong?" Oh, the endless questions of childhood ! The 
blessed endless questions. 

The child goes to sleep with a query, and awakes 
with a query. Truly the child awakes by asking ques- 
tions. Only as we ask and receive instructions, and 
understand — do we awake into childhood, awake into 
manhood and womanhood, awake into masterhood, 
awake into God-hood. 

As I have told, in the Foreword to this book, I 
awoke as a child, to the consciousness of a "Power 
Within" me. Then I awoke as a man to some sort of 
an understanding — imperfect thought it was — of this 
"Power Within" me. 

Now, with consciousness of this "Power Within," 
with understanding of what this Power is, why it is, 
and how it functions, I have tried to explain how man 
can develop this Power and use this Power for the 
good of man and the manifestation of God. 

We, together, the reader and I, have discovered that 
this "Power Within" is the Power of Creativeness. We 
have recognized that this Creative Power always works 
affirmatively and never negatively. That it works 
through the individual only as the individual works 
with the Power. 

We understand, now, that efficiency becomes true 
Creativeness only when it is imbued with Spirit. 

'We understand whv man was created — to enable 



212] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS 

Spirit to manifest Itself in individual form. — 

We understand what man's work in the world is — 
to so perfect himself that the Spirit can manifest in 
man its wholeness, its completeness. 

We understand that man was made in the image and 
likeness of God, so that God — Spirit— could manifest 
Himself in His own image and likeness — in concrete 
form. 

We understand that mortal man — matter — is the 
Creation of God; that immortal man — mind, thought, 
Spirit, is the reflection of God. / 

We understand that Spirit is infinite and eternal; 
without beginning and without end ; ever was, ever is, 
and ever shall be. 

We understand that Spirit is everything that is 
good, everything that is true, everything that is beau- 
tiful — that Spirit is complete and perfect wholeness of 
Itself. 

We understand that Spirit within man — the "Crea- 
tive Power Within" — in its very nature is seeking to 
live in its wholeness, in its fullness. 

Well, now, we cannot fail, with this understanding, 
to realize that man's work on earth and in the Great 
Hereafter, is ; to live the Creative life in its fullness. 

If man must live his life to the fullness of his being 
— physical, mental, moral and Spiritual — he might as 
well live as fully as he can in this material world. Then 
he can live more fully in the life to come — in the 
Spiritual world. 

[213] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



Man must live. Man never dies. The body dies. 
The soul lives forever, developing itself on each plane, 
as we enter it, until it becomes — until man becomes — 
the perfect image and likeness of God. 

Surely this thought, this understanding, is an incen- 
tive to live Truth, to live Love, to live Wisdom, to live 
Beauty, here and now, for we must live these attributes 
of Spirit here or hereafter. 

Man has the choice of right or wrong, truth or er- 
or, sickness or health because he is man. But sooner 
or later, because the real man is the reflection of God, 
he must take the way of Spirit. 

God is patient, but God is without limitation of time 
and space. God will prevail. 

Man may plunge into the deepest sin, into the deep- 
est suffering and sorrow. But man will emerge. Man 
will be re-born in Spirit. 

Isn't it foolish, then, when we understand, to take 
the wrong road, to travel in the wrong direction, when 
we must surely turn around some day and re-trace our 
steps ? 

Here again — in the turning around, from wrong to 
right — in "righting-about-face" — we must exercise our 
power of choice. We must acknowledge our sins and 
ask forgiveness. We must show that we acknowledge 
our error and that we mean to live Right. We must 
show our change of heart by atoning for our wrongs, 
by actually living the Right. 



[214] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS 

To atone means to make amends, to give satisfaction, 
to bring into harmony. 

We atone by "making good" a wrong, by rendering 
satisfaction to the person wronged, by bringing our- 
selves into harmony with Spirit (with Truth, Love, 
Wisdom and Beauty), by living our unity with God. 

We atone to God for our wrongs to man, to our- 
selves, because we — individual men — are the image 
and likeness of God. 

God forgives, as we atone, as we "make good," as we 
do good, as we live good, because God is Good, God is 
Love. 

This understanding, that God forgives as we begin 
again to live God, brings joy and peace to the most 
hardened sinner. With the realization of forgiveness, 
with the correction of our habits, we begin again to 
feel life, true life, surge through our bodies. 

We begin to understand life, to live life. We find 
life in everything we do, and we do everything we can. 
We find life big and broad, open and free, full and 
satisfying — not narrow and restricted nor small and 
petty, nor shut-in and slavish. 

We enter into life with more Spirit. We put more 
energy into our work. We put more kindness and 
sympathy into our actions. We strive more. We do 
more. We help others to live more. We co-operate 
with man and with God. We take up our true work 
of "manifesting the Spirit." 

We enter into the great joy of living — of creative 

[215] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



living. We do not shut ourselves up in a cloister and 
seek to know God only within. We enter into the 
world, and we find God revealed everywhere without. 

We sing. We dance. We play. We work. We live. 

We become cheerful, happy, contented. We become 
the happy worker who creates to the fullness of his 
power the "Power Within." We become the happy 
employer who creates, through his co-workers, and 
divides the result of creativeness — wealth — justly be- 
tween his men. 

We become the happy creative Father and Mother — ■ 
creating a family and leading up this family to God, 
as we ourselves have been led to God. 

We become the creative preacher, teacher, lawyer, 
physician, business man, judge, social worker, magis- 
trate, the creative leader of any kind — the creative 
worker, in whatever field we find ourselves. 

So-called "menial" work is as truly creative as so- 
called professional work. The woman who cooks, who 
sews, who keeps house is as truly creative as the work- 
man at the lathe, or the designer and artist in his 
studio, or the man who does "brain-work" only. 

When we once let loose the creative spirit we do 
"our best" at all times in whatever field of labor or 
service we find ourselves. We strive to improve that 
"best." We strive to know more, to grow more, to 
live more, to be more. 

Gone are our doubts and worries. Gone are our 
fears and fancies. Gone are sickness and suffering. 



[216] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS 

Only truth remains. Only love remains. Only wis- 
dom remains. Only harmony remains. 

We may have lapses — into error, into sin, into suf- 
fering and sorrow. But these lapses are temporary. 
They pass. Then we take up our work again with re- 
newed vigor, joy, life. 

Nothing can hold back a man with the joy of true 
creativeness in his heart. There are no limitations to 
a man who is a true creator — who lives in the image 
and likeness of God. 

The creative man always goes forward, always goes 
upward, always goes towards wholeness, completeness. 

Live, then, in the fullness of our physical powers, 
our physical pleasures, if we live Spirit — the Power 
which is within us and is being expressed in our bodies. 

Live in the fullness of our mental powers — to the 
fullness of creative thought, if that thought is divine 
thought. 

Live in the fulness of our Spiritual power — the 
power of Spirit, which is of God, not merely the power 
of the cosmos, which is of man. Then we do all good 
things, know all good things, create all good things, 
have all good things, be all good things. 



I am sitting in the open air in the sunshine of a 
balmy winter day in the South. We have just emerged 
from a cold spell. Snow is still on the ground. But 
the snow — the cold snow — is disappearing. Snow and 



[217] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



cold always disappear before the warmth of the sun 
and air. 

Cold is negative — the absence of heat. Heat is posi- 
tive. Cold freezes. Heat warms. The sun is warm- 
ing my body, as the Spirit, as I write, is warming my 
soul. 

I have just emerged from a journey along the road 
of Error. By some lack of understanding I took the 
wrong road, a little way back, as I was climbing the 
mountain of life. I must have mistaken the sign-board. 
I shall look with clearer eyes, more Spiritual eyes, 
when I come to the cross-roads again. 

So I have been re-tracing my steps. I have suffered. 
I have atoned. And I have been forgiven. 

I am on the right road again. I am on the road of 
Truth, of Love, of Wisdom, of Beauty. 

That I might have a better understanding of these 
things, that I might the more firmly fix them in my 
mind, I have been "thinking out" my thoughts — put- 
ting them down on paper. 

And so this book is born. It is born of a new con- 
templation of Spirit. It is born of thought — Spiritual 
Thought, the one true creator of all there is, or has 
been, or ever shall be. 

I shall send this book out into the world, among 
men, conscious of its shortcomings, realizing its weak- 
ness in exemplifying Spirit, but knowing, also, that it 
is a messenger of good, a messenger of God. 

How do I know the book will do good? How do I 



[2.8] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS 

know the book reflects God — even though in an im- 
perfect mirror? 

Well, next Sunday is Easter. It is Easter in war- 
time 1 91 8. Easter is the day of the resurrection of 
Christ. And the birth, life and resurrection of Christ 
prove to me — man — that man is made in the image and 
likeness of God. 

Jesus was born of woman — a man. He became the 
Christ — the son of God — when he reached perfection 
— the fullness of life. 

Jesus shows the way to perfection. Man must travel 
this way, striving after perfection. 

Jesus lived in the fullness of life. Man must live the 
fullness of life. 

Jesus suffered. Man must suffer. 

As man strives to live Truth, to live Love, to live 
Wisdom, to live Harmony, he will travel ever onward 
— doing good as he goes, because he is living God. 

I have been up in the mountains communing with 
God. I have retired into my innermost self and prayed. 
I have found Light. ^ 

I shall go back to work — to the material work of 
the world — and I shall enter into this work more deep- 
ly than ever before. I shall do more. I shall know 
more. I shall grow more. I shall live more. I shall 
be more. 

I shall try to tell others what I have learned. I shall 
help others. And as I help others, others will help me. 
Most of all God will help me. 

[219] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



I have found the Power Within. I have found that 
it is a Creative Power. I shall live the Creative Power 
Within to the best of my ability — physical, mental, 
moral, Spiritual. And the Creative Power Within 
shall live more in me — shall manifest itself in me, 
the individual. 

Thus shall all men live the Creative Life of the 
Spirit ''till we all come in the unity of Ihe Faith, and 
the Knowledge of the Son of God, un'.o a perfect man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ." 

AFTERWORD 



"Retracing step by step our homeward walk, 
With many a laugh among our serious talk." 

Retracing our own homeward steps, in concluding 
this book, we should remember these words of James 
Russell Lowell. He was speaking of his intercourse 
with Agassiz. One was a poet and scholar. The other 
was a scientist. Both were deep thinkers. Yet they 
mingled laughter with their seriousness. 

Laugh and learn. Make this attitude of mind your 
elixir of life. 

Be happy in your work. Be cheerful in your life. 
The end of life, as we know life, is not death, not even 
sorrow, but more life; more life of the right kind — the 
creative kind — which means more happiness. 



[220] 



AFTERWORD 



Spirit thinks and creates for us a happy and suc- 
cessful life when we forget our own petty thoughts, 
and think with the Spirit. Consciously we live. But 
subconsciously we create. 

There is a time to think and a time to forget, a 
time to work and a time to play, a time to suffer 
and sacrifice and a time to enjoy, a time to cry and a 
time to laugh. Only when we experience life in its 
myriad sides does it become fully rounded. 

/Serious man-thought is necessary when we are build- 
ing the man-machine. Little or no man-thought is nec- 
essary when Spirit-thought is creating through the 
man-machine. 

An electric motor illustrates this. It is man made, 
but man does not run it. It runs automatically when 
electricity is applied. 

"It runs automatically." Remember this. On the 
motor hangs a sign : "hands off." Automatic machines 
run best when not interfered with. 

Man is an automatic machine when Spirit-power is 
applied. When Spirit is at work a sign should hang 
on man: "thoughts off." / 

This is what I mean by saying that Spirit thinks and 
creates best through us when man forgets his petty 
thoughts. Realize this truth and the weighty burdens 
of life fall from our shoulders. Burdens are mostly of 
our own making, any way — in the mind. Mental bur- 
dens interfere greatly with creativeness. Only a free 
and happy mind, unweighted with thoughts of tech- 



[221] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



nique or tools or "burdens," can create good and beau- 
tiful things. 

We must not expect consciously and actively to be 
creating good and beautiful things all the time, any 
more than we must not keep an electric motor running 
all the time. But subconsciously, of course, our crea- 
tiveness goes on automatically without ceasing. 

We must take time to rest and sleep and eat. We 
must take time to play and be merry. We must take 
time to clean, oil, adjust, repair and renew — through 
re-creation — the man-machine. 

If we attempt seriously to think and to work too 
much at one time, or too frequently, without the re- 
laxation of lighter thoughts and lighter aspects of life, 
we become oppressed and depressed by our self-im- 
posed responsibilities. We become dispirited instead 
of inspirited. We lose the very Spirit we are seeking 
to find. 

Learning our A, B, Cs seemdd a tragic task in child- 
hood. Grammar was an ogre. Arithmetic, algebra and 
geometry were nightmares to most of us. 

Yet as men we talk, read, write and figure auto- 
matically without thought of these rudiments of learn- 
ing. 

Now, suppose we use the "Chart of Creativeness" in 
this book merely as a guide to the technique of creative 
living, the alphabet, grammar and numerals of life, if 
you please. Then, when we acquire the technique of 

[222] 



AFTERWORD 



Creative Life we forget the chart and use it automatic- 
ally in our constructive thinking. 

The musician works long and patiently to acquire 
knowledge of the musical scale, the principles of har- 
mony, and the technique of expression. When he plays, 
as Paderewski plays, he forgets these things. The Cre- 
ative Spirit merely pours out a melody of music 
through the perfected man-machine. The artist spends 
years in learning the technique of painting. One day 
he forgets his technique. He is inspired. The Spirit, 
through this man-machine, paints a masterpiece. 

Again, use the Creative chart as a check-up on our- 
selves when we find things are not going right in our 
lives. Then we turn back to this chart, run our finger 
over its divisions and quickly see where we are at 
fault in our method of living. 

Even when things are going well with us we can 
profitably turn to this Creative chart and see where 
we can improve, where we can oil certain parts of our 
machine, making it run more smoothly, where we can 
put in new bearings, where we can stop a little of the 
jarring, rattling and noise that produce wasteful fric- 
tion as we work with our fellow men. 

"I can understand all this," some one will surely 
say, "but why, when we build up a good man-machine 
and open it freely to the Power within us, then why, 
oh, why, do we have to suffer without apparent cause ?" 

Without apparent cause is the answer to that ques- 
tion. No one suffers without cause. Many of us suf- 



[223] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



fer without apparent cause because we do not compre- 
hend the law of life. 

^All life is based on law — inexorable law that is just, 
is good, is wise, is true, is beautiful. Accept this 
philosophy of life and the sun shines more clearly. 

Accept the philosophy of life that Thought alone 
create, and that it creates according to the law of 
cause and effect and we see that we are creatures of 
our thoughts — we suffer only as we allow ourselves to 
think suffering. 

"That's all very well," you say, "but did you ever 
have an innocent baby stricken down with suffering?" 
"Yes, my own child." "And was the child the victim 
of its own thoughts? What nonsense !" 

No, the child was not a victim of its own thoughts. 
But have you ever stopped to think that a sick and 
suffering child might be a victim of our thoughts — of 
your thoughts or of my thoughts, acting personally, 
and of rac^-thought, acting collectively ? 

There are many things in life we cannot understand, 
and what we call "innocent suffering" is perhaps the 
hardest of all to comprehend. There is no such thing 
as "innocent suffering" in the sense of "suffering with- 
out cause." The sufferer may be entirely innocent, 
but some one else, or some people collectively, must be 
guilty, or suffering could not originate. Suffering is 
the effect of a cause. No effect is possible without 
cause. / 

But suffering is in the world, whatever its cause, and 



[224] 



AFTERWORD 



we must face it, and bear it. We must suffer for 
others and others must suffer for us. Through mutual 
suffering — as the race of man learns rightly to think 
— comes the chastening, the refinement unto perfection, 
as through fire comes pure gold. 

We are making advances in our understanding. Man 
is no longer frightened into right living by the threat 
of Devil and Hell. Nor is he bribed by the rewards of 
Heaven. He has proceeded beyond this attitude of 
mind. Man is now being led by the power of Thought 
into the understanding that he has his destiny in his 
own hands. 

Man's true destiny is God's intention, whatever that 
may be. God's intention is good and beautiful and 
wise, else God would not be God. 

Thus, through science and philosophy, through un- 
derstanding and faith, man will live a new creative 
life through Spiritual thought. 

Living Spiritual thought in his daily work and activi- 
ties, man becomes healthful instead of sickly, strong 
instead of weak, happy instead of sad, enthusiastic in- 
stead of despondent, helpful instead of hurtful; and, 
in material things, a true success instead of a failure. 

Whether man comes to the way of Creative Living 
through scientific understanding or simple faith mat- 
ters not. He reaches the true end of his Being by 
either road — and that is enough. 

Let us live the creative life. Let us do diligently, 
honestly and cheerfully the work of the day, says Tro- 



[225] 



LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE 



ward, in substance, not as serving a hard task-master, 
but in happy confidence, and day by day hand our bur- 
dens over to the Loving Creating Spirit, and fresh ave- 
nues will open for us where we saw no way. 



THE END 



••; 



••: 



;•, 



m 



a 



[226] 



A PERSONAL LETTER FROM JUDGE 
TROWARD 

St. Keverne, 
Lower Shiplake, 
Oxon, England, 
December 2, 191 4. 
Dear Mr. Appel: 

I have to thank you very much for your kind cour- 
tesy in sending me a copy of your book "My Own 
Story" and I can only say it gives me great pleasure 
to see such a practical application of my principles by 
a man of business like yourself. There is no doubt a 
danger in these metaphysical strides of becoming 
dreamy and not pushing on to concrete results, just 
as there is the opposite danger of not realizing the 
relation which our spiritual forces bear to our ex- 
ternal activities — the relation of cause to effect, and 
I must congratulate you on the manner in which 
you have combined the two. What strikes me about 
your little book is ist thorough level-headedness, and 
I feel sure I shall derive profit from carefuly study- 
ing it over again. It is, indeed, a case of my own 
returning to me with interest. 

When I was lecturing in London last week an officer 
came and called on me and told me my books were 
much appreciated among the officers of his regiment, 
and certainly a regimental mess was hardly the place 
where I had expected them to be noticed. And then a 
few days later I received your kind letter and book, 

[227] 



and the fact that the principles I have endeavored to 
state should thus find acceptance with really practical 
men — shrewd business men and soldiers — is a very- 
great encouragement to me to go on writing and lectur- 
ing. 

One gets a certain amount of practical training in 
the Indian Civil Service, for you pass through various 
grades before arriving at the post of Divisional Judge. 
Sometimes I have been in charge of a Government 
Treasury, and sometimes Governor of a Jail, and as 
(in my time) a jail was expected to support itself by 
manufacturing various things and also to yield a profit, 
one got a sort of an insight into that side of things. 
Mostly we made carpets and paper, but I remember 
once being appointed to a jail which I found consider- 
ably in debt, so I started making soap which turned 
out so successful that we not only cleared the debt but 
at the end of a year had made the largest profit of any 
jail in the Punjab. Of course one had to do one's 
regular magisterial work all the time, but these secon- 
dary employments afforded healthier mental exercise 
in other and more practical directions, though later on 
when I came to be a Judge of Appeals, I did nothing 
but legal work, and the only outlet I found for some- 
thing more active was in building a windmill to draw 
up water from a considerable depth (the first ever seen 
in those parts) and in constructing a pulpit for the 
Parish church. Painting has been a life-long help to 
me and I exhibit my works from time to time in various 
exhibitions. I was out painting in oils only yesterday, 

[228] 



rather late in the season to be working out of doors in 
December, but I am very fond of it. The very first 
pupil I had in Mental Science was an electrical engi- 
neer, and when he told me his profession I said, "Now 
I shall have no difficulty in explaining Mental Science 
to you," and we turned the whole thing (by analyzing) 
into terms of electricity and magnetism, and similarly 
I could teach an artist by expressing it in terms of the 
construction of a picture. That is what strikes me 
about it, that the principles are in themselves so uni- 
versal that they can be applied to any particular line of 
expression that may be desired and this is why I have 
ventured to talk freely about my own experiences. But 
you must work to learn the particular laws of the par- 
ticular line before you can thus specialize the universal 
principles — you won't get technical knowledge by in- 
spiration, though you may get a sort of inspirational 
expansion of your technical knowledge when you have, 
by hard work, got a thorough knowledge of the sort of 
material you are handling. This is what such experi- 
ences as I have had has taught me, and it enables me 
more fully to appreciate the line of thought you have 
taken up in your book. 

As you may suppose, we are all greatly exercised 
over here about the war. I had planned to make a lec- 
turing tour in the States this autumn but have had to 
put it off both on account of the war and also having 
moved into a new house where by the terms of my 
tenancy I have to create a garden ; but I am hoping to 
find my way to America some time during the early 

[229] 



part of next year, when I propose starting lecturing at 
"The School of the Builders" and afterwards going to 
other places where I have received invitations, and 
should nothing occur to prevent this I shall look for- 
ward to the pleasure of meeting you and thanking you 
in person for the encouragement you have given me. 

I hope you will excuse this long and rather discur- 
sive letter, but after reading your book I feel as if you 
were an old friend, and I have no doubt you have 
guessed that I am a rather unconventional person. 

Once more thanking you, and with all good wishes, 
I remain, 

Yours very sincerely, 

(Signed) T. TROWARD. 



[230] 



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Judge Troward supplemented his line of reasoning 
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